Privacy as virtue Moving beyond the individual in the age of big data

This book discusses whether a rights-based approach to privacy regulation still suffices to address the challenges triggered by new data processing techniques such as Big Data and mass surveillance. A rights-based approach generally grants subjective rights to individuals to protect their personal interests. However, large-scale data processing techniques often transcend the individual and her interests.
Virtue ethics is used to reflect on this problem and open new ways of thinking. A virtuous agent not only respects the rights and interests of others; a virtuous agent has a broader duty to act in the most careful, just and temperate way. This applies alike to citizens, to companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook and to governmental organizations that are involved with large scale data processing.
Van der Sloot develops a three layered model towards privacy regulation in the Big Data era. The first layer consists of minimum obligations that are independent of individual interests and rights. Virtuous agents have to respect the procedural pre-conditions for the exercise of power. The second layer echoes the current paradigm, the respect for individual rights and interests. The third layer is the obligation of aspiration. A virtuous agent designs the data process in such a way that human flourishing, equality and individual freedom are promoted.