GATT L., The data protection law fallacy in the information economy. Ignacio Cofone’s perspective confirmed by ReCEPL Empirical Legal Studies

This contribution offers a critical review of Ignacio Cofone's book ‘The Privacy Fallacy: Harm and Power in the Information Economy’, conceived as an introduction to a collective special issue dedicated to the book itself. The text represents a turning point in the analysis of contemporary privacy law because it exposes the structural error of a regulatory paradigm focused on individual consent and procedural mechanisms of notification and choice. Cofone demonstrates, instead, the inadequacy of this model in light of behavioral economics, opaque models, and the power asymmetries inherent in the information economy. This perspective appears to be valid, as confirmed by multidisciplinary studies conducted in parallel at the ReCEPL Research Center using the ELS method and published in 2021. Another central element of the book is the reconceptualization of privacy damage as an intrinsic injury to dignity, autonomy, and intimacy, as well as systemic and collective damage. This issue intends to collect the analyses of Cofone's book written by illustrious scholars who, from different perspectives, that have all underlined the reconstructive force of Cofone's idea based on the need to move from a model based on contracts to a model of tort law with the consequent elaboration of effective rules of liability for damage to the individuals.