Neurotechnology And Mental Privacy: Legal Challenges Of Brain-Computer Interfaces In The Digital Age
Anshul Kumar Manik, University of Allahabad
ABSTRACT
The rapid development and commercialization of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have converted neurotechnology from a niche medical research innovation into a consumer product, spanning industries such as healthcare, workplace monitoring, gambling, education, and smart devices. As the technological systems grow more capable of direct neural intervention, they will begin generating neural data that will not only sum up an individual’s conscious thoughts but all of his or her subconscious mental processes, emotional reactions, intentions, and behavioral predispositions. This new reality will give rise to significant new legal and ethical questions concerning human dignity and privacy rights. This paper postulates that while a host of personal data protections, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), protect some categories of personal neural data, the existing data protection principles will be inadequate to protect the ever-expanding categories of inferred neural information derived from BCIs. It compares existing privacy laws, constitutional data privacy protections, and emerging BCI regulatory regimes, to highlight the current lack of a legal framework for protecting the cyber-physical inferred neural information obtained from biometric psychographic profiling. It argues that BCI and neuro artificial intelligence (AI) convergence will emerge with psychiatric, governmental, and corporate cyber-neuro-surveillance, neuro-effects, “brain jacking,” and behavioral manipulation, warranting a three-neuro rights system of cognitive liberty, mental privacy, and mental integrity to safeguard human dignity by establishing, supporting, and enhancing a new legal paradigm protecting this galvanic neural data. It concludes that ANI is better prepared to anticipate and circumvent this new wave of existential neuroweapons if this new legal paradigm can be enshrined as a third pillar of AI physics alongside Newtonian gravity and quantum physics.
Keywords: Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs), neurotechnology, neuro data, mental privacy, neuro rights, cognitive liberty, mental integrity, artificial intelligence (AI), data protection law, privacy law, cybersecurity, brain jacking, neuro surveillance, neuromarketing, and human rights, highlighting the emerging legal and ethical challenges associated with protecting cognitive autonomy and neural information in the digital age.
