Protection of religious freedom in the digital era

By, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Stefano TESTA BAPPENHEIM

Abstract

The duty of confidentiality is considered one of the highest and oldest obligations of ministers of religion, and in line with its great importance, it has been protected by numerous legal provisions, within the framework of the protection of religious freedom, since confessional secrecy requires procedural support in the form of rights to refuse to testify and prohibitions on arrest searches, otherwise it would degenerate into a de facto ‘empty shell’, due to the general obligation to testify in court or the possibility of seizing documents. But society, with the rapid and universal development of digital techniques, is undergoing a revolution, the consequences of which are likely to alter the current paradigms resulting from the industrial revolution. Society will be transformed in the same way it was transformed in the 19th century, during the industrial revolution. This ongoing revolution will change our view of public and private freedoms. The legislation put in place by the French Revolution to define and protect the rights and freedoms of man and citizen must evolve in the face of the contribution and influence of new technologies and their consequences on these freedoms. If public freedoms are affected by the digitization of society, so are individual freedoms. By unifying the laws of the Member States, the General Data Protection Regulation is a first step towards universal protection throughout the European Union.