A right to identity to face the internet of things

Introduction In a world of “Internet of things”, computing is enabled to melt invisibly into the fabric of our business, personal and social environments, supporting our economic, health, community and private life. In a world of “Internet of things”, it will be easier to establish new relationships, but also to identify people, since all possible everyday objects will be part of a network. After having introduced two notions of identity, viz. ipse and idem identity, we look briefly at the impact of new modern and future computing. The European Court of Human Rights, in its interpretation of Article 8 of the ECHR, in particular the right to respect for private life, has ruled that this right covers an individual’s physical and social identity, such as gender identification, name sexual orientation and sexual life and the right to personal development and personal autonomy. However, in the light of emerging technological threats to the individual and in the light of certain resistance to the privacy right, the suggestion to create or recognise a specific ‘right to identity’ needs to be taken into consideration. Such rights could be useful, taking into consideration the challenges of the Internet of things, and the problems of existing human rights law to cope with these. Even more weight can be given to the recognition of new human rights when looking at some broader identity issues, such as the double nationality issue. New human rights could be instrumental to the delicate balancing of interests these issues, granted it is conceived as a liberty rights to both aspects of identity.