XX NAMING AND SHAMING IN GREECE: SOCIAL CONTROL, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE COLLATERAL DAMAGES OF PRIVACY AND DIGNITY Lilian Mitrou Associate Professor Department Information and Communication Systems Engineering University of the Aegean - Greece ABSTRACT: his paper addresses the issue of identifying in public the persons that are either arrestees or suspects of crime or tax evaders. Naming and shaming measures have been recently introduced in Greece as a tool for enabling social control and thus achieving purposes of law enforcement. Shaming becomes a formal tactic of punishment itself, signalizing social disgrace and relecting a shift to the conception of compliance and the role of the society. Shaming interferes with the fundamental rights and liberties of the persons afected. he approach of this paper is that evaders, arrestees and suspects should not be deprived of their rights, especially their rights to informational privacy and dignity. Fur- thermore shaming publicity may threaten the right to the presumption of innocence. he stigmatizing efect of shaming is enhanced through the technical apparatus, which renders information more easily detected, reproduced, permanently stored, and undermines the right to oblivion and rehabilitation. he invocation of the social control, often as a substitute of proper public action, does not it into any cognizable notion of state responsibility, while it is not sure that this art of sanction deters future crime and connects the ofender and the society to an understanding of lawfulness by internalizing these lawful values. he assumption of this paper is that a democratic, liberal State should treat a person as someone possessing the basic dignity and never humiliate a person by using her as means. KEYWORDS: naming, shaming, sex ofenders, tax evaders, reputation informational privacy, pre- sumption of innocence, dignity. 1. NAMING AND SHAMING: AN INTRODUCTION Recently, there has been in Greece a considerable public debate about the so-called «naming and shaming» policy, which is implemented mainly in relation to sex/child pornog- raphy ofenders and tax evaders. In the irst case the Greek law provides for the competence of prosecutors to decide on the naming of persons accused or suspected, whereas in the latter case the naming of tax evaders is laid down as an obligation of tax authorities. Naming the ofender constitutes an integral component of shaming policies. In the context of this paper we understand by «naming» the disclosure, publication and dissemina- tion of the identity of a person, who is convicted or suspected of crime or tax evasion. he af- fected person may be either directly identiied or identiiable by reference to factors speciic to her identity. Naming magniies the negative efects inherent in accusation or conviction MITROU.indd 1 31/05/12 10:13