Reinventing data protection? Serge Gutwirth et al., Springer 2009 Btihaj Ajana Published online: 25 August 2009 # The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Like many normative concepts that have managed to secure a place within the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, “data protection” has recently become the subject of renewed interest and growing attention from a wide range of fields and disciplines. In light of the ongoing developments in information and communication technology, various debates have been initiated to address the question as to whether the concept of data protection is in need of an urgent revamp if not even entire reinvention. These debates are often driven by a sense of dissatisfaction and trepidation over the current treatment of data protection and its associated concepts. More specifically, they are concerned with the tangible discrepancy existing between the present ‘practice’ and ‘regulation’ of data protection, and the core ‘values’ and ‘principles’ attached to it. The book Reinventing Data Protection?, as its evocative and interrogatory title suggests, is indeed one example of such concerns and discussions. Drawing mainly, but not solely, upon the legal perspective, the collection of articles presented in this book aims to provide a full length assessment of the myriad challenges currently facing the notion of data protection and offer a speculative account on the kind of future that lies in store for fundamental rights in general. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, Reinventing Data Protection? also represents an attempt to devise, tentatively at least, a viable normative framework for re-imagining and enacting a new wave of data protection legislation that is both reflective of and stemming from fundamental democratic ideals. From the outset, a clear and coherent case is formulated vis-à-vis the rationale and the driving forces behind the inauguration of such debate. These range from the imperative to identify the most salient ethical values pertaining to the issue of data IDIS (2009) 2:355–358 DOI 10.1007/s12394-009-0025-3 B. Ajana (*) London School of Economics, London, UK e-mail: b.ajana@lse.ac.uk