Use of AI and the Right to Privacy under International Law

Abstract

The artificial intelligence technologies (AI) usage has rapidly changed the ways and working of states, corporations and other actors through collecting, processing, analyzing, inferring, and using personal information. AI has changed and reshaped the the multiple aspects of individual’s life. AI systems can be used to analyze vast amounts of data, find patterns that humans might not recognize, make predictions about people and help or make decisions that impact employment, healthcare, policing, migration, education, financial services and access to public services. They offer vast opportunities for social and economic development but at the same time raise unprecedented questions about the right to privacy. What's actually becoming a growing worry is the ability of AI systems to not only track individuals and their behavior but also to predict sensitive characteristics.

This article takes a doctrinal and comparative legal approach to explore if existing international law sufficiently protects human privacy from interference by AI. It examines international human-rights instruments, regional case law, materials prepared by the UN, Council of Europe's standards, UNESCO's Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and a selection of comparative regulatory developments. It states that current international human-rights law is still relevant and offers a moral compass to govern the development of AI, however, it needs to be more precisely applied. The article suggests an approach to rights, which is rooted in lawfulness, necessity, proportionality, transparency, accountability, privacy by design, human oversight, impact assessments, independent oversight and effective remedies. It argues that in order to govern AI properly, the right to privacy must be considered a core human right and not only a secondary ethical consideration, and should affect all aspects of the AI lifecycle.