As a starting point, the author takes considerations regarding the nature of privacy as a legal category. He acknowledges that it is a human freedom requiring effective legal mechanisms protected by public authorities. At the same time, he points out threats that civilization changes and technological development bring for human privacy. The author confronts these considerations with the problems of collecting and processing data in the health care system. The author, however, concentrates on solutions adopted by the current EU legislator in a new comprehensive set of normative acts on protecting privacy. In this context, the author presents new trends and specific legal solutions regarding health protection. He also indicates the danger of absolutizing the protection of privacy, especially where the need to protect the life and health of the patient demands a primacy over general legal solutions regarding the protection of personal data.

Protecting the privacy of health information in the new European Union legislation

As a starting point, the author takes considerations regarding the nature of privacy as a legal category. He acknowledges that it is a human freedom requiring effective legal mechanisms protected by public authorities. At the same time, he points out threats that civilization changes and technological development bring for human privacy. The author confronts these considerations with the problems of collecting and processing data in the health care system. The author, however, concentrates on solutions adopted by the current EU legislator in a new comprehensive set of normative acts on protecting privacy. In this context, the author presents new trends and specific legal solutions regarding health protection. He also indicates the danger of absolutizing the protection of privacy, especially where the need to protect the life and health of the patient demands a primacy over general legal solutions regarding the protection of personal data.