SOCIAL, LEGAL, AND TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINANTS OF THE FORMATION OF PROFESSIONAL CONFIDENTIALITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A GENERAL-THEORETICAL APPROACH
Abstract
This article presents a general theoretical study of the social, legal, and technological determinants shaping the regime of professional secrecy in the context of society’s digital transformation. It argues that the rapid development of information technologies, cloud services, cross-border data processing, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence systems is significantly altering the nature of social relations related to the storage and use of professionally confidential information, which requires a rethinking of traditional doctrinal approaches to the content of professional secrecy and the mechanisms for its legal protection.
The author argues that modern risks of confidentiality breaches are linked not only to the unlawful conduct of individual actors but also to the functioning of digital infrastructure, algorithmic information processing systems, generative artificial intelligence, software, and cross-border digital services. In this regard, the author proposes viewing professional secrecy not exclusively as an obligation to maintain the confidentiality of information, but as a multi-level legal regime for controlling its processing throughout its entire lifecycle.
The authors formulate an original approach to understanding information control as a legally guaranteed ability to define the scope of entities, digital services, and technological processes permitted access to professionally confidential information, while ensuring the traceability of operations involving its use. The paper argues for the advisability of legally enshrining the principle of digital professional autonomy, which will ensure the right of a professional to independently determine the admissibility of using digital technologies when working with confidential information, provided that cybersecurity requirements, data localization, algorithmic transparency, and cryptographic protection are observed.
At the same time, based on a critical analysis of Ukrainian and European legal regulations, it has been established that improving Ukrainian legislation should be carried out by modernizing sector-specific regimes of professional secrecy, taking into account contemporary technological challenges and the provisions of European legislation in the field of personal data protection and the regulation of artificial intelligence. The author concludes that digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence systems should be regarded as independent sources of legal risks requiring special legal regulation, and that the protection of professional secrecy must be based on a combination of legal, organizational, and technological safeguards for the protection of confidential information.
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