AI and IoT have had an impact on a global scale. It poses new problems for privacy and personal information protection. It is common to put privacy protection in the AI principles that have been compiled so far. The problem is how to protect it actually? The issue of privacy and personal information protection has been discussed considerably in relation to developments in information and communication technology (ICT). This need has also been recognized in Japanese law (Article 12, Paragraph 3 of the Amended Act on the Protection of Personal Information (2015). As was the case before, I have felt the need to consider privacy and personal information protection issues on a global scale.

The discussions at the International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC) consisting of data protection authorities (DPAs) of major countries that routinely work on privacy and personal information protection are practical, and it has become extremely meaningful to refer to it. Japan's Personal Information Protection Commission (PPC) was recognized as a member in 2017. This year the Resolution on data protection in automated and connected vehicles was adopted. It is a specific example of IoT. In 2018, the ICDPPC adopted the Declaration on Ethics and Data Protection in Artificial Intelligence. In addition to his previous research, the chairman of the PPC has been committed to these international documents. Especially for the latter, a permanent AI working group was established and Japan will have to input. To that end, wisdom should be gathered.

This article focuses on Article 22 of the GDPR(General Data Protection Regulation) which provides a right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing and explores an appropriate approach to this kind of right, which would be an important human right in an AI networked society. Because a legal meaning of such a new right has not been settled yet and because it would be difficult to discover a discrete action by a data controller that violates this right from outside, this article suggests that a paradigm shift from “action” based regulations to “structure” based approaches might occur in the GDPR and should be a core approach in this complicated AI society.

This paper discusses the legal interplay between the protection of privacy, personal data, and competition. From the perspective of competitive law, this paper addresses the following issues: (1) whether competition law should take into account the value of the protection of privacy or personal data; (2) the theoretical basis for introducing the value of privacy as a normative measure into competition law; and (3) the German Federal Cartel Office decision on Facebook, along with the legal issues presented by it.

Regarding these issues, individual consent, choice, and informational self-determination would be the major values of privacy and personal data protection that need to be considered in competition law. Additionally, we need to consider differences regarding the concept and conditions of valid consent between the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) in Japan. While providing personal data from a business to a third party would qualify as legal when the provision is the result of a merger, according to the exception allowed in the APPI, the practice would not be legitimate based on the GDPR. As the GDPR’s consent requirements are strict, violation of an anti-competition act can be easily found when a case of GDPR violation is disputed.

From the viewpoint of personal data protection law, this paper includes an analysis of (4) the issues on data portability and (5) whether administrative sanctions should be incorporated in the APPI. Concerning data portability, role sharing between anti-competition law and personal data protection law is important. First, each law must be separately analyzed. Second, if personal data are included, compliance with the personal data protection law must be ensured; then, the possibility of violating the anti-competition law should be examined. We must look into cases from more analytical viewpoints, as both cooperation and conflict could occur when anti-competition and personal data protection laws are relevant. Finally, incorporating administrative sanctions into the APPI is possible as long as the purpose for administrative sanctions in competition law aligns with personal data protection laws.

In the Right to Control over Personal Information, which based on the theory of personal autonomy for the fundamental right under the Constitution, personal information are classified into two groups, Proper Privacy Information and Extended Privacy Information.

Regarding the control over personal information in public law, recent justifications for the control over Extended Privacy Information are based on the proper constraint on governmental power, which are distinct from the right to personal autonomy.

Even in the control over personal information in private law, it has been pointed out that self-determination of control is not a final purpose but a means to prevent invasions of privacy. The concept of “Privacy as Trust” can justify the control over the Extended Privacy Information, which has been outside the scope of the Right to Control over Personal Information.

This paper does not deny the concept of "Privacy as Autonomy" for the protection against invasion of intimate relationships as the core of privacy. Rather, in order to prevent the violation of the Autonomy, the Trust should be protected appropriately.

This paper discusses the current status and issues on television accessibility for people with visual and hearing disabilities in the United States, including the utilization of text generated by closed captioning and video description such as television access to deaf and blind people and media monitoring services. The paper gives a general explanation of closed captioning and video description, the type of viewers using these services, methods for creating closed captioning and video description, related laws and regulations, and then discusses issues on application of closed captioning and video description requirements on television programs and utilization of text generated by closed captioning and video description. As a suggestion to Japan's future policy, the paper concludes that measures must be discussed to rectify disparities between the amount of closed captioning and video description provided to disabled viewers, and to improve television accessibility for deaf-blind people, and a soft law approach formed by discussion among industry organizations, instead of a case law approach in the United States, is more appropriate for dealing with copyright issues that will arise when introducing a new business that is similar to the media monitoring business in Japan.

In the case of company surveys, companies that have failed on the survey theme are reluctant to respond, resulting in sampling bias. We tried to estimate this bias in the case of data utilization by asking the same question to the employee and comparing it with the result of the company survey. Since employees are asked anonymously, they will answer without concern even if the company at work fails on the theme. Thus, the difference between the results of the two surveys can be interpreted as the result of sampling bias. We found that the success ratio rate of data utilization was about 7.1 percentage points higher in the company survey than in the employee survey. If this difference is caused by sampling bias, successful companies answered about 30% more than those that did not. Converting to a correction weight, when performing regression analysis etc., a successful company should be multiplied by 1/1.3 or about 0.77. With this degree of correction, it is unlikely that the results of regression analysis will be significantly altered. However, this survey is a business survey conducted by the government in which the bias is relatively small. It is expected that bias will be greater in the more sensitive thematic surveys conducted by the private sector.

The Bill for Partial Revision of the Broadcast Act was established at the 198th Ordinary Diet Session with the aim of making the following matters possible: 1) An expansion of targets for NHK’s internet-utilizing service, 2) Enhancement of systems to ensure the appropriate management of the NHK Group, and 3) Additional certification requirements for basic satellite broadcasting.

As for 1), a change in the viewing environment in recent years has revealed that there has been an expectation, and need, from the public to watch broadcast programs on a variety of devices, in various places, and at diversified time zones, through the Internet. Therefore, by implementing the simultaneous distribution of broadcasting programs at all times in response to this expectation, NHK is expected to play a leading role in the simultaneous internet distribution of programs by other broadcasters. In addition, an expansion of viewing opportunities for NHK’s broadcast programs is expected to contribute to the achievement of NHK’s objectives.

Institutional development will enable NHK to distribute all broadcast programs simultaneously through domestic basic broadcasting is fine. At the same time, as necessary measures to ensure that NHK’s operations will be carried out appropriately to meet its purpose as well as the purpose of the fees for receiving the broadcast system, it has become obligatory to provide broadcast programs for each region and to cooperate with other broadcasters. In addition to a review of NHK’s implementation standards, and the institutionalization of its obligation to notify and publicize implementation plans, the revision is also aimed at NHK’s ex-post discipline.

As for 2), in expanding NHK’s operations based on the financial source of fees for receiving broadcasts, it is necessary to implement governance reforms at NHK from the viewpoint of securing the trust of the public. Accordingly, the revision seeks to maintain compliance through institutional enhancement, including reinforcement of internal controls in the NHK Group and the check function of the Audit Committee, as well as clarification over the obligations of NHK executives to be faithful to NHK. Also, the revision enables the establishment of a information disclosure system to ensure transparency, and the development of a system for the formulation and publication of medium-term management plans.

As for 3), to make effective use of frequencies related to basic satellite broadcasting, the requirements have been added to enable basic satellite broadcasting to meet the standards for the use of frequencies as specified by Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.