Publication: La génesis del derecho fundamental a la protección de datos personales
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2017-05-31
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Universidad Complutense de Madrid
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Abstract
El derecho de protección de datos es un fenómeno reciente, cuyo estudio desde el punto de vista histórico, sin embargo, es necesario si se quiere comprender su espíritu y finalidad, de acuerdo a las pautas del método jurídico comúnmente aceptado en el derecho constitucional. En primer lugar, se fija el significado del derecho de protección de datos, que son normas jurídicas que establecen restricciones al tratamiento de datos perosnales, con objeto de proteger a la persona, pero permitiendo o facilitando su derecho de autodeterminación. La situación hacia 1750 era la completa ausencia de normas protectoras de la intimidad. Los tratamientos de datos se realizaban sobre bases exactamente contrarias a las que hoy sustentan las normas de protección de datos. Sólo existía una institución tradicional, que daba protección a un aspecto de la personalidad: las acciones contra la difamación. En la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII comienzan a moverse las instituciones jurídicas en dirección a la defensa de la autonomía del individuo. Las primeras instituciones que van en este sentido son el secreto de las comunicaciones y los derechso morales de autor, que la jurisprudencia anglosajona vincula. En esta jurisprudencia se apoyarán Warren y Brandeis, para construir en su artículo de 1890 The right to privacy un base para la protección general de la intimidad. En Europa, por la misma época, se alcanzan resultados parecidos, con una construcción teórica propia: los derechos de la personalidad. La prohibición de interrogatorio sobre preferencias religiosas, que aparece en algunas Constituciones de entreguerras, va en el mismo sentido. Pero es en la segunda posguerra mundial, cuando la preocupación por la intimidad se incrementa enormemente y se generaliza en todos los países desarrollados. Como factores con influencia en la aparición del derecho de protección de datos están la preocupación por la intimidad, el impacto de la tecnología de los ordenadores (aparecidos a finales de los años 40 y generalizados en los 60), el recuerdo negativo del abuso de la información personal llevada a cabo por los totalitarismos del siglo XX, y una serie de detonantes o catalizadores específicos propios de los años 60 (proyectos de grandes centros de proceso de datos, intención de utilizar números únicos, rechazo a los censos periódicos, literatura alarmista, y el problema de la seguridad informática). La primera ley de protección de datos es la Datenschutzgesetz de Hesse. A partir de entonces, en sólo 8 años, en apenas una docena de leyes, aparecen todos los elementos esenciales de las modernas legislaciones de protección de datos. Al mismo tiempo, desde la Constitución portuguesa de 1976, se produce un proceso de constitucionalización de la protección de datos. A fecha de hoy, el derecho de protección de datos se manifiesta de dos formas: o en leyes de protección de datos, o en un derecho fundamental a la protección de datos, que operan de forma relativamente autónoma el uno del otro. Las dos “ratios” legislativas del derecho de protección de datos son el procesamiento de datos “correcto” y el principio de autoderminación del individuo. Un hito importante en este desarrollo fue la sentencia del Tribunal Constitucional Alemán de 1983 sobre la Ley del Censo de 1982 (“Volkszählungsurteil”), con inmensa influencia sobre los desarrollos posteriores, y que dio preemeninencia al principio de autonomía o autodeterminación. La jurisprudencia del TC está muy influida por esta sentencia. Las nuevas constituciones posteriores que se refieren al tema de protección de datos, incluya ya también claramente destacado el principio de autodeterminación informativa. El resultado final de todo el proceso es que el concepto de protección de datos es plural, porque responde a intereses muy diversos: en esta pluralidad está la clave para comprenderlo.
Data Protection Law is a modern phenomenon, whose study from the historic point of view is necessary for understanding the spirit and aim, according to the method of jurisprudence widely accepted in Constitutional Law. In the first place, the meaning of the Data Protection Law is set, that are the setting up of law rules establishing restrictions to the personal data processing, with the aim of protecting to the individual, but always allowing him to exercise his right to self-determination. The situation at 1750 was the total lack of law rules protecting privacy. The grounds of the personal data processing were exactly opposite to those that nowadays are the basis of data protection law. There was only one law institution aimed to the protection of a part of the personality: the actions against defamation. In the second half of the Eighteenth Century, the legal institutions start to move around in the way of a bigger protection of the autonomy of the individual. The first institutions in this way were the secret of communications and the author’s moral rights, that are connected in the American and British case law. Warren and Brandeis, for building in their article The Right to Privacy of 1890, a basis for the general, rely on this case law. In Europe, for the same time, a totally different approach in a specific theoretical construction, the rights to personality (“derechos de la personalidad”). The prohibition of asking about religious beliefs, appearing in some Constitutions between both World Wars, has the same meaning. But in the second World post-war, the concern about privacy rose hugely and became a general concern in all develop countries. There are several influencing factors in the rise of data protection law: the concern about privacy, the impact of computers technology (developed in the end of Forties and generalized in the Sixties), the negative memory of the misuse of personal information by totalitarian systems in the Twentieth Century, and a set of specific triggers in the Sixties (projects of big data processing centers, intention to use unique identifying numbers, rejection to periodical census, literature of the alarm, and the problem of information security. The first data protection act was the Datenschutzgesetz of Hesse in 1970. From then, in only six years, with almost a dozen of acts, all the essential elements of the modern data Protection regulations appeared. At the same time, from the Portuguese Constitution of 1976, there is a process of data protection law rules became “constitutional”. Nowadays, the data protection law has two different ways of expression: or data protection laws or the fundamental right to data protection, that work in a relatively independent ways from each other. The two “ratios” of data protection law are the “fair” use and processing, on the one side, and the right to selfdevelopment of the individual, on the other side. A major landmark in this development was the judgment of German Constitutional Court of 1983 about the Census Act of 1982 (“Volkszählungsurteil”) that has had a huge influence on further developments and gave big preeminence to the principle of autonomy. The case law of the Spanish Constitutional Court has been very influenced by this judgment. The new constitutions after the “Volkszählungsurteil” include also clearly highlighted the principle of Selfdetermination. The final outcome of all this process is the fact that Data Protection Act is a plural concept, because it is an answer to different interests: this plurality is the key to understand it.
Data Protection Law is a modern phenomenon, whose study from the historic point of view is necessary for understanding the spirit and aim, according to the method of jurisprudence widely accepted in Constitutional Law. In the first place, the meaning of the Data Protection Law is set, that are the setting up of law rules establishing restrictions to the personal data processing, with the aim of protecting to the individual, but always allowing him to exercise his right to self-determination. The situation at 1750 was the total lack of law rules protecting privacy. The grounds of the personal data processing were exactly opposite to those that nowadays are the basis of data protection law. There was only one law institution aimed to the protection of a part of the personality: the actions against defamation. In the second half of the Eighteenth Century, the legal institutions start to move around in the way of a bigger protection of the autonomy of the individual. The first institutions in this way were the secret of communications and the author’s moral rights, that are connected in the American and British case law. Warren and Brandeis, for building in their article The Right to Privacy of 1890, a basis for the general, rely on this case law. In Europe, for the same time, a totally different approach in a specific theoretical construction, the rights to personality (“derechos de la personalidad”). The prohibition of asking about religious beliefs, appearing in some Constitutions between both World Wars, has the same meaning. But in the second World post-war, the concern about privacy rose hugely and became a general concern in all develop countries. There are several influencing factors in the rise of data protection law: the concern about privacy, the impact of computers technology (developed in the end of Forties and generalized in the Sixties), the negative memory of the misuse of personal information by totalitarian systems in the Twentieth Century, and a set of specific triggers in the Sixties (projects of big data processing centers, intention to use unique identifying numbers, rejection to periodical census, literature of the alarm, and the problem of information security. The first data protection act was the Datenschutzgesetz of Hesse in 1970. From then, in only six years, with almost a dozen of acts, all the essential elements of the modern data Protection regulations appeared. At the same time, from the Portuguese Constitution of 1976, there is a process of data protection law rules became “constitutional”. Nowadays, the data protection law has two different ways of expression: or data protection laws or the fundamental right to data protection, that work in a relatively independent ways from each other. The two “ratios” of data protection law are the “fair” use and processing, on the one side, and the right to selfdevelopment of the individual, on the other side. A major landmark in this development was the judgment of German Constitutional Court of 1983 about the Census Act of 1982 (“Volkszählungsurteil”) that has had a huge influence on further developments and gave big preeminence to the principle of autonomy. The case law of the Spanish Constitutional Court has been very influenced by this judgment. The new constitutions after the “Volkszählungsurteil” include also clearly highlighted the principle of Selfdetermination. The final outcome of all this process is the fact that Data Protection Act is a plural concept, because it is an answer to different interests: this plurality is the key to understand it.
Description
Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Derecho, Departamento de Derecho Constitucional, leída el 08-02-2016