Personal data is being collected and stored for military purposes during peacetime, before and during an armed conflict and in the post-conflict phase. While the law of armed conflict contains very few, if any, lex specialis rules on the requirements and conditions of lawful data processing, other regimes such as international human rights law continue to apply during armed conflict and contain specific provisions concerning the protection of information privacy and data integrity.
In the light of the technological advances in the fields of electronic surveillance, social engineering, predictive algorithms, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, automated processing, biometric analysis, and targeted hacking, a need for an inquiry into the interplay between different legal regimes in regulating privacy and data protection in times of conflict has emerged.
In an ongoing research project the CCDCOE in cooperation with Indiana University Ostrom Workshop will explore the way the above mentioned and other technologies are currently being developed and employed in military operations, and the existing international law regimes that apply to their development and deployment. The outcome of the planned research is an edited volume which will be published by the CCDCOE and launched during the 14th International Conference on Cyber conflict, CyCon, in May 2022. Besides making a contribution to the scholarly discussion on international law and cyber operations, the book will be aimed at practitioners faced with the task of fair and proportional data processing in conflict situations.
On behalf of the CCDCOE the project is led by Ms Ann Väljataga. The book-length anthology, consisting of works from internationally renowned scholars as well as emerging voices, will be edited by Dr Asaf Lubin (Associate Professor of Law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law and Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University) and Dr Russell Buchan (Senior Lecturer in International Law at the University of Sheffield).