Conclusion: What Do We Know About Group Privacy?

Abstract

This chapter draws together the conclusions of the book as a whole, namely that the available typologies of group privacy, such as collective action lawsuits or the articulation of the rights of political or activist groups, are intuitively insufficient to address the landscape emerging from the new data analytic technologies. The book has demonstrated that there are multiple and often divergent perspectives on what a group is and how it should be addressed with regard to privacy, but this divergence is also an important tool for understanding which elements of the problem can be addressed using current legal and conceptual tools and which will require new approaches. The chapter outlines the authors’ contributions to the typology of group privacy concerns, then identifies the gaps and limitations that arise from a group perspective on privacy, and the conceptual and practical implications of taking the group level into account. Finally, it suggests ways forward for future research, discussion and action.