In recent times the world witnessed dramatic changes in the ways personal data are accessed, processed and used. Personal data are a key asset of the information economy. The amount and variety of personal information in administrations’ databases and systems also escalated. At the same time, the general public became increasingly aware of the related risks for both individuals and society. Normative issues thereby arose about how to define the correct balance between the interests and values at stake, a tension first addressed by the Data Protection Directive - DPD (1995). Later on, a number of measures as part of the EU Space for Freedom, Security and Justice raised mounting concerns about their bearing on privacy and individual freedoms, namely: new information systems for control of individuals’ movements within the EU and across its borders, identity cards containing biometrical data, and the Data Retention Directive.

The need to reassess the DPD was therefore acknowledged. This call emerged whilst the Charter of Fundamental Rights entered into force (2010). A challenging theoretical target for this project thus was to critically analyse the principles, rights and guarantees contained in the EU data protection law and under the Space of Freedom, Security and Justice and to proceed to an evaluation of the underlying balancing of values and rights in the light of the Charter. A complementary goal was to deepen our understanding of the related social values. Designing and applying a questionnaire survey to a quota sample of Portuguese respondents pursued this goal.

By designing and applying a questionnaire survey to a quota sample of Portuguese respondents. The survey will address, in particular: respondents’ degree of knowledge and understanding of existing rules, regulatory authorities and data subjects' rights; their levels of awareness towards the actual perils for their privacy and personal data protection related to a variety of actual uses of this information; perceptions of legitimacy and adequacy of the laws; how respondents balance the perils against the benefits in terms of services or products which go with the collection, storage and use of personal information; levels of trust in the various types of organisations that hold their personal data; self-reported behaviour, in particular whether respondents have ever mobilised existing rules and rights and if so, under what circumstances, with which ends and how they evaluate the outcome; willingness to engage in behaviour mobilizing existent rules and rights; willingness to engage in behaviour contesting or resisting existent rules and rights; and how people tackle the moral and practical dilemmas raised by the conflicts of values at stake. The results of this survey will be drawn on for appraising in what ways the interpretation of values, principles and rights relating to privacy and data protection by EU institutions match people’s priorities and concerns, reassessing existing institutional mechanisms and procedures designed to foster the protection of fundamental rights as provided for in EU and Portuguese data protection legislation, and suggesting possible improvements in the present formulation of substantive and procedural rights and mechanisms aiming at the protection of privacy and personal data protection. The study will apply an interdisciplinary approach whereby legal and policy analysis is combined with insights from social psychology in order to suggest innovative ways of informing the legal process and rendering it more open to social knowledge.

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