The art of privacy

What do Titian and Leonardo da Vinci have to do with privacy and (non-) compliance with rules in the era of digital data and algorithms? What do Canaletto’s and Guardi’s vedute have to do with due diligence, or Pietro Longhi’s rooms with smart working? What connects a 16th Century court artist and a 21st Century Data Protection Officer? Can a painter be entirely artificial and non-human, and can a still life be made up – instead of flowers, wildfowl, and bottles – of hardware, software, and obsolete documents? Is an electronic work of art just art or can it hide, or even constitute in and of itself, valid legal titles? Is a copy – of a painting or a legal document – always a forgery and an objectionable offence? In this engaging exploration, which spans centuries of art from its most ancient forms to today’s crypto art, the author – a data protection lawyer and collector – takes us on an extraordinary metaphorical journey, interweaving the sense of beauty and the common sense of regulations, compliance and creativity, the aesthetics of innovation and of penalties. 75 years after Carnelutti’s Art of Law, The Art of Privacy is a unique book that already promises to become a classic of legal literature in years to come. It succeeds in providing the “key of imagination” for scholars, legal consultants, and business managers to free themselves from their specialist cages, while also intriguing and challenging digital art enthusiasts.