European regulatory agencies: a new model of governance?

Abstract

Technological innovations in telecommunications, data transmission and computers have altered the availability of data fundamentally and made any sort of data in principle available everywhere at anytime. Simultaneously, data storage capacity has grown tremendously and stored data can be digitally processed and linked. This situation creates challenges both in the private and public sectors. Companies want to utilize the potential economies of these new technologies (such as RFID chips) and use data on consumption patterns to improve their marketing efforts; public authorities want to build huge databases of biometric data or use cameras in public space to improve safety and fight crime. Yet at the same time these legitimate uses can endanger civil rights, threaten privacy and create a surveillance society. The question who exerts control over such "flows of data", who has access rights, and what purposes they can be used for, therefore has immense political ramifications. The panel will discuss both single country and comparative studies that deal with the political processes surrounding the introduction and regulation of such technologies in liberal democracies; the framing of public debates accompanying these processes; and the institutional and historical conditions that influence their outcomes.

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