AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The module aims to provide students with foundational legal knowledge concerning personal data and data processing, in order to foster a critical understanding of issues related to privacy and the protection of rights, particularly in light of contemporary forms of vulnerability and digital injustice. Special attention will be devoted to the impact of digitalisation – from “relational technologies” to AI systems – on privacy violations, processes of defining deviance, and mechanisms of oppression, discrimination, and social exclusion affecting individuals.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

In particular, the course aims to:

• provide fundamental legal knowledge on personal data (including data types and metadata) and their processing (especially in relation to profiling), in light of the European and national regulatory framework: from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the AI Act, implemented in Italy through Law No. 132/2025, to the amendments introduced by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan Decree (Decree-Law No. 19/2026, converted into Law No. 50/2026), as well as the proposals currently under discussion (Digital Omnibus and Digital Omnibus on AI);
• offer an understanding of the main sociological theories of deviance that are useful for investigating contemporary forms of vulnerability and digital injustice (such as, for example, the profiling measures contained in the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, dataveillance, algorithmic and AI-based discrimination, online hate speech, cyberbullying, and cyberviolence against women);
• examine the perspectives emerging from the current debate on privacy, the right to be forgotten, and neurorights through the analysis of significant case studies.

Across all three areas, particular emphasis will be placed on critical and gender-based theories.

Upon completion of the course, students will have acquired appropriate knowledge and interpretative tools to critically analyse issues of privacy and the protection of rights in digital environments, as well as to design and conduct empirical research in this field.

TEACHING METHODS

• Face-to-face and synchronous online lectures;
• Tutorials/small-group activities.

In addition, seminars on specific topics may be organized. These will aim to encourage classroom discussion, also with a view to helping students develop and improve their argumentative skills.

Students with valid certifications for Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), disabilities or other educational needs and having complied with Unige procedures (described here) who need compensatory measures to prepare the exams or during the exams are invited to contact the teacher at the beginning of the course to agree on any teaching methods that, in accordance with the teaching objectives, take into account individual learning styles.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

1. Introduction:

a) theories of deviance;

b) new social media, digital economy, and digital surveillance;

c) online hate speech and the GDPR.

2. The classical and neo-classical paradigm;

3. Positivist criminology and new-positivism;

4. Functionalist perspectives and subcultural theories of deviance;

5. Criticism of functionalism:

6. Labeling approach;

7. Panopticon and digital panopticon;

8. Dataveillance and digital vulnerability;

9. Hate speech online and tools to prevent and combat it;

10. The regulation of data protection rights in the EU.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

For students attending:

1. Notes made in the class.

2. The reading materials indicated during the course.

For not attending students:

The course materials will be announced at the beginning of the course and shared on Teams.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

The course will be held in the first semester of the academic year 2026-2027. More precise information will be provided on Aulaweb, to which students are invited to register regardless of attendance.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The examination is oral and consists of an interview aimed at assessing the candidates’ understanding and critical re-elaboration of the course contents, as well as their presentation, argumentative, and analytical skills, including their ability to establish connections between the various topics covered.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Attending students, whose level of learning and engagement will also be assessed throughout the course by means of small-group activities and thematic discussions, are expected to understand and critically re-elaborate the topics addressed in class and to present them orally with appropriate command of language.

Non-attending students are expected to understand and critically re-elaborate the issues discussed in the assigned readings and to present them orally with appropriate command of language.

Students having a valid certification of disability or Specific Learning Disorders (DSA) and having complied with Unige procedures (described here) may request the use of compensatory measures during the exams (e.g. additional time and/or concept maps). In any case, for further information, please contact the Department’s disability liaison.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Non-attending students are also suggested to subscribe to aulaweb, to be informed of events and opportunities, and to teams, in order to have access to teaching materials.

Ask the professor for other information not included in the teaching schedule.