The law of everything. Broad concept of personal data and future of EU data protection law. Issue 1 (2nd January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Purtova, Nadezhda
• Is Part Of: Law, innovation and technology. Volume 10:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 40
• Page End: 81
• Publication Date: 2018-01-02
• Subjects: Personal data -- GDPR -- material scope -- information relating to -- Breyer -- Nowak; Technological innovations -- Law and legislation -- Periodicals; Intellectual property -- Periodicals; 338.064
• DOI: 10.1080/17579961.2018.1452176
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1757-997X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Article 29 Working Party guidelines and the case law of the CJEU facilitate a plausible argument that in the near future everything will be or will contain personal data, leading to the application of data protection to everything: technology is rapidly moving towards perfect identifiability of information; datafication and advances in data analytics make everything (contain) information; and in increasingly 'smart' environments any information is likely to relate to a person in purpose or effect. At present, the broad notion of personal data is not problematic and even welcome. This will change in future. When the hyperconnected onlife world of data-driven agency arrives, the intensive compliance regime of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will become 'the law of everything', well-meant but impossible to maintain. By then we should abandon the distinction between personal and non-personal data, embrace the principle that all data processing should trigger protection, and understand how this protection can be scalable.