NEW YORK (24 October 2024) – After decades of rapid advances in technology, guiding principles must be updated so that institutions can adjust to the socio-technological reality of the 21st century, a UN expert said. In a report to the General Assembly, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, Ana Brian Nougrères, said the internet, digital social networks, international data collection (big data), cloud computing, artificial intelligence, smartphones, virtual reality, and neurotechnologies bring new challenges to protect personal data and privacy. “New technologies have always been great companions in our quest for development and progress but they also generate a number of risks inherent in their use and evolution,” Brian Nougrères said. “I urge States to incorporate these updated guiding principles, contained in the recommendations of my report, which touch on key concepts such as lawfulness, proportionality, non-discrimination, special protections for sensitive data and children, confidentiality, transparency and accountability and revise their respective national legislations.” The report provides a comparative analysis of key international and regional instruments from the UN, Council of Europe and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and examines the regulatory work undertaken by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Ibero-American Data Protection Network and the Global Privacy Assembly to harmonise data processing documents, modernise the concepts and incorporate a human rights approach. The UN expert urged States to undertake a formal process to update GA Res 45/95 by adopting the updated principles outlined in her report and ensure minimum safeguards are reflected in national laws for the proper processing of personal data and the right to privacy. The Special Rapporteur also called for an inclusion of a humanitarian clause that “States shall adopt special measures on the processing of personal data to facilitate and support humanitarian action to protect and assist vulnerable persons in the context of armed conflict, violence, natural disasters or emergency situations”. Dr. Ana Brian Nougrères of Uruguay is the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy. The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council"s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity. For more information and media requests, please contact Ms Sonia Cronin (sonia.cronin@un.org) For media enquiries regarding other UN independent experts, please contact Dharisha Indraguptha (dharisha.indraguptha@un.org) or John Newland (john.newland@un.org) Follow news related to the UN"s independent human rights experts on X: @UN_SPExperts