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Italy Robots for the Family: Protection of Personal Data and Civil Liability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2019

Isabella Ferrari
Affiliation:
Adjunct Professor in Comparative Private Law, University of Studies of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
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Summary

NEW CHALLENGES FOR ITALIAN LAW IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ROBOTS DESTINED TO BE USED AT HOME

Robots are an integral part of our daily life, and have now entered fully into our homes. Cameras, door locks, entertainment and lighting systems, thermostats, household (cleaning) robots, vacuum robots, lawn-mowing robots, poolcleaning robots and personal assistant robots are common home management tools; moreover, systems that offer assistance to the elderly, and also the use of toy and educational robots, have spread widely.

On the other hand, the Italian regulatory framework on robots is almost non-existent due to the absence of legal provisions capable of keeping up with the new challenges imposed by technological innovations.

In fact, robots for domestic use are not only made up of hardware, but also and especially by soft ware, which exchanges information with other devices, with external servers and even with third parties. The need to protect this exchange of information is clear and to ensure that, owing to the domestic nature of the robots under consideration, they or the information they contain, remain of a confidential and private nature.

This chapter examines the Italian regulatory system regarding robots for family and home use, in light of the recent entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and of the domestic regime in the field of civil liability. The ultimate goal is to recommend legal reforms to enhance the overall protection of all family members, in accordance with the right to respect for private and family life set out in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989.

NEW MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY IN THE ERA OF INDUSTRY 4.0

The investigation on robotic law necessarily presupposes the contextualisation and the description of the cases analysed in this chapter which, due to their intrinsic novelty, have so far remained without legal consideration by the Italian Parliament.

HOME AUTOMATION

Home automation or domotics deals with the interaction and exchange of information between different components normally present in the domestic environment, in order to improve the overall management of the equipment and of the system in terms of quality, safety and economy.

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Publisher: Intersentia
Print publication year: 2018

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