Algorithmic Social Sorting And New Legal Narratives On Digital Privacy

Abstract

The use of algorithms for social sorting has imposed the need to challenge the traditional understanding of the private sphere as a sealed-off realm free from surveillance and outside intervention. The relationship between private and public has become dynamic and complex while the borderline between the two zones remains to be in a state of flux. The concept of digital privacy is related to the data doubles rather than physical bodies, and it is limited to partial control over personal data. The General Data Protection Regulation, along with the new legislations, namely, Artificial Intelligence Act and Digital Services Act offer a conceptualisation of digital privacy that recognises novel dataveillance practices that involve the collection, interpretation, use and misuse of biometric and behavioural data. This paper uses the method of conceptual analysis to investigate the new definitions of digital privacy that emerge from the corpus of legislative acts including GDPR, AIA and DSA and find out how they generate new legal narratives on privacy that recognise the dangers of echo chambers and algorithmic decision-making.