Regulation of Privacy in Cyberspace: A Comparative Study in the Laws of the United States of America, the European Union and Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Author

PhD Graduate of Public Law, Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract
Today, modern information and communication technology has played a basic role in the social, economic and cultural affairs of societies and is considered as a driving force in the growth and development of human societies that this new technology has become the foundation of a kind of social media. With its interactive feature, this media has created a new space called virtual space in the field of activism. Because cyberspace is a unique communication medium, citizens are not only content consumers but also content creators. Therefore, the content of virtual space has become as diverse as human thinking. The effect of accessing and using this global interactive media is to promote and defend civil-political and economic rights around the world. Therefore, there is a vital connection between cyberspace and human rights. Since human rights are considered inviolable and inherent rights of every human being, these rights should be promoted and supported in virtual space as well as in physical space.Obviously, there is a potential conflict between human rights protection laws and the principle of unrestricted information flow in cyberspace. One of the most important human rights affected by internet communication is privacy; therefore, adopting a suitable regulatory model to protect the mentioned rights is one of the essentials of the subject under discussion.In this article, it is argued that the optimal model of cyberspace content regulation is the cooperative regulation model. This model of regulation is based on alegalframework based on which private institutions organize their affairs through codes of conduct or a set of rules, which can be used for the symbiotic relationship of law, social norms and Internet architecture in this model of regulation to achieve a synergistic result.

Keywords


 
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