Privacy

Privacy is the right of an individual to be free from unwarranted intrusion into their private and family life, home and communications, and to control information about themselves. It is protected as a fundamental right by Art. 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Art. 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and recognised in Art. 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Medical confidentiality, rooted in the Hippocratic tradition and codified in professional secrecy laws, is one of its oldest expressions.

In European law, privacy and data protection are distinct but overlapping rights. Art. 8 of the Charter guarantees the protection of personal data as a separate right, implemented through the GDPR, which applies to any processing of personal data whether or not it is "private". Privacy is broader in scope (it covers bodily integrity, surveillance and family life) but narrower in application (it protects a private sphere, not all information). The ePrivacy Directive, governing cookies and electronic communications, sits at the intersection. US law, by contrast, uses "privacy" as the umbrella term, as in HIPAA's Privacy Rule and state privacy statutes such as the CCPA.

For life sciences, the practical value of the distinction is that compliance with the GDPR does not exhaust privacy obligations: medical secrecy, patient dignity in trials, confidentiality of genetic information towards relatives and insurers, and the ethical review by ethics committees all draw on the wider right. Conversely, privacy by design and privacy-enhancing technologies are engineering disciplines that serve both rights.