The electronic exchange of information and respect for private life,banking secrecy and the free internal market

The purpose of this essay is to assess the automatic exchange of information as described in EU Directive2003/48 of 3 June 2003 on taxation of savings income in the form of interest payments with regard to thefundamental right of the individual to a private life, to banking secrecy and the freedoms on which theEuropean internal market is based.The assessment reveals the conflicts of interests and values involved in the holding by banks (particularlythose offering private banking services) of increasingly extensive, detailed and intimate information abouttheir clients and in the automatic processing of that information by ever more powerful and sophisticatedsystems....