The first privacy revolution emerged from the Enlightenment, freeing individual autonomy from the collective priorities of ancient societies and laying the dignitarian groundwork for modern data protection. This legacy is most prominent in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which establishes the world’s highest standards for safeguarding personal data. This lecture argues that we are now undergoing a second privacy revolution: a quiet yet profound transition from dignitarianism toward utilitarianism in the governance of personal data. Led by the United States and China, this revolution reframes the core value of personal data as an instrumental tool for advancing broad societal goals, rather than as an inherent facet of human dignity. Through a comparative analysis of American and Chinese law, the lecture reveals how both nations have engineered data governance frameworks to maximize market efficiency, consumer welfare, and national security. Within this utilitarian paradigm, personal data has acquired quantifiable exchange, innovation, predication, and management values, effectively subordinating individual privacy to the collective benefits of economic growth, technological advancement, and social stability.
Haochen Sun is professor of law and director of the Program on Artificial Intelligence and the Law at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. He is an expert on intellectual property, technology law, and Chinese law. His monograph, "Technology and the Public Interest" (Cambridge University Press), puts forward a new theoretical approach to protecting the right to technology and enforcing technology companies’ fundamental responsibilities. His opinions about law and technology have appeared in media outlets, such as BBC News, CNN, Forbes, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In spring 2023, he served as an international visiting professor at Columbia Law School.
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Information Society Project