The right to information or data sovereignty? Sending unsolicited messages to Russians about the war in Ukraine

Abstract

The Russian government's narrative about the Russia-Ukraine war has raised concerns about disinformation, fake news and freedom of information. In response, websites have been developed that allow people across the world to call or send emails and texts with information about the war to individuals based in Russia. To facilitate this person-to-person communication between strangers, automated data processing has been used to collect personal data from the internet and compile it into publicly accessible mailing lists. This side-stepping of consent coupled with the nature of information being transmitted and the motivation behind its transmission poses important questions of an ethical nature: What is an appropriate balance between the data subjects’ right to freedom of information and their right to privacy? Can data processing without the consent of the data subject be justified in certain circumstances? This commentary does not seek to provide definitive answers to these questions, rather it canvases some key issues in the hope of starting further dialogue on the topic.