GDPR: Let not privacy become an idol
By Adrian Beney, Church Times.
IN THE past few months, there has been an increasing tide of emails and letters from charities and companies begging us to “stay in touch” after 25 May. Besides being the day we remember St Bede, that great collector of personal stories, it is the implementation date for the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (News, Letters 9 March).
These messages are all part of an increasingly anxious response to a significant step in the development of privacy law. The Church of England has not been immune from anxiety: advice has been promulgated nationally and at diocesan level which ranges from the sensible and pragmatic, through the cautious, to the downright wrong.
It is high time for some reflection on all of this. Practically speaking, over-compliance risks needlessly restricting the Church’s interaction with the communities that it serves. More important, we need to think theologically.
We need to consider whether the “right to the protection of personal data”, on which GDPR is based, sets up an inherent conflict with the nature of a God whose essence is relational. If the Church is a mirror for revelation of God’s relationship with humanity, and Christ’s crucifixion is the ultimate example of openness to the world, how do we reconcile this with a right to retreat inwards behind privacy law?
At its best, this legislation allows us to construct a framework for treating others with respect. But, when it is used to build a “privacy wall” around each of us, to control what others see of us, and to reveal only what is chosen, it turns all the focus on to the individual, on to “me” and “my rights”. Here, privacy risks becoming an idol to be respected above all else.
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