Human rights in the digital age: Challenges, threats and prospects

Abstract

The current stage of development of public relations is described by a rapid increase in digital technologies. Intensive development of science and active technological progress have become the main characteristic features of modern society. This has affected the specific features of people’s lives in society, the exercise of their rights and freedoms, and has become a catalyst for the development of a new category of human rights – “digital” rights. The purpose of the study is to analyse the main threats and challenges facing human rights and freedoms in the context of digitalisation, and to develop proposals on promising ways to protect against these threats. The study conducts a theoretical and legal research of problematic issues of the implementation of human rights in the context of mass digitalisation of public relations, indicates that the era of digital technologies provides completely new and qualitatively different opportunities for their implementation, but at the same time it creates new challenges and threats to ensure these rights and freedoms. It is noted that classical human rights and freedoms are being transformed, filled with new aspects and content, and branched out into those that are related to the digitalisation process. The results of digitalisation of many spheres of life require comprehension and adequate formulation of the legal mechanism for regulating, implementing, protecting the already existing and emerging human rights for the purpose of sustainable socioeconomic development, ensuring the implementation and protection of constitutional human and civil rights and freedoms. The study focuses on new rights such as the right to be forgotten, the right to anonymity, the right to protect personal data, the right to digital education and access to digital knowledge; rights related to the protection of genetic information; rights to take part in property turnover in the digital sphere