New Human Rights to Protect Against 'Mind Hacking'

From the 4-26-17 Guardian comes this article entitled "New Human Rights to Protect Against 'Mind Hacking' and Brain Data Theft Proposed" by Ian Sample, Science Editor:  

"New human rights that would protect people from having their thoughts and other brain information stolen, abused or hacked have been proposed by researchers.

"The move is a response to the rapid advances being made with technologies that read or alter brain activity and which many expect to bring enormous benefits to people’s lives in the coming years.

"Much of the technology has been developed for hospitals to diagnose or treat medical conditions, but some of the tools – such as brainwave monitoring devices that allow people to play video games with their minds, or brain stimulators that claim to boost mental performance – are finding their way into shops.

"But these and other advances in neurotechnology raise fresh threats to privacy and personal freedom, according to Marcello Ienca, a neuroethicist at the University of Basel, and Roberto Andorno, a human rights lawyer at the University of Zurich. Writing in the journal Life Sciences, Society and Policy, the pair put forward four new human rights that are intended to preserve the brain as the last refuge for human privacy.

"'The question we asked was whether our current human rights framework was well equipped to face this new trend in neurotechnology,' Ienca told the Guardian. Having reviewed the rights in place today, the pair concluded that more must be done to protect people.

"'The information in our brains should be entitled to special protections in this era of ever-evolving technology,' Ienca said. 'When that goes, everything goes.'"

To read the entire article, click HERE.