The Law and Data Protection

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the range of legislation associated with the regulation of data management. Of special interest here is the status of personal images as ‘data’. The issue of whether photographic or digital images are in fact data creates tensions that until recently did not exist. In other words, the technology has overtaken the legal discourse and has required either that the image data should be assimilated into existing law on a case-by-case basis, or for new laws to be drafted. Therefore, since face recognition is an imaging modality previous statutory instruments are inadequate, and this chapter provides the back-drop to the on-going legal discourse.