examining the potential challenges | 10.1163/22131035-14020001 25 necessary information and advice to make a decision in favour of his or her best interests.142 3.2.6 Privacy Privacy is a fundamental human right, essential in order to live in dignity and security.143 Article 17 of the iccpr states that ‘no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks’. Violations or abuses of privacy might affect the enjoyment of other human rights, including freedom of expression, association and movement.144 This can affect the rights of people to cast their vote in confidentiality and to keep their political opinions private. ai systems thrive on vast amounts of data, and this dependency adds a new layer of complexity to long-standing privacy concerns, especially around the collection and processing of personal information.145 While issues around transparency, security, and unauthorized data collection are not new, the scale and impact of ai’s capabilities, enabled by vast datasets and powerful computational resources, present more significant challenges.146 Since ai is good at recognizing patterns, it can also gather data on people even without direct access to personal information. ai systems can collect, process, and analyse vast amounts of data, including sensitive information, often in ways that are difficult for individuals to understand or control. This can lead to increased risks of privacy violations.147 Anne Teo contends that ‘with datasets and the dispersed use of ai in communications and even public life, the infrastructural affordances it entails means that privacy is being increasingly hollowed out at its core’.148 Affonso et al. asserts that the new challenges ai tools bring in 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 Committee on the Rights of the Child, General comment No. 12 (2009): The right of the child to be heard crc/c/gc/12, Fifty-first session, Geneva, 25 May-12 June 2009 para. 16. Nagy, (n 73) 243–244. UN Human Rights Council, ‘The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age’ a/hrc/res/34/7, resolution adopted on 23 March 2017. ‘What Are the Privacy Concerns With ai?’ 5 February 2025 <https://verasafe.com/blog /what-are-the-privacy-concerns-with-ai/> accessed 30 September 2025. Ibid. Bernd Carsten Stahl, Artificial Intelligence for a Better Future An Ecosystem Perspective on the Ethics of ai and Emerging Digital Technologies (Springer Briefs in Research and Innovation Governance, 2021) 41. Anne Teo, (n 46) at 2271. International Human Rights Law Review (2025) 1–31