Report: How to protect personal data when anonymization can no longer be guaranteed?
What is a dataset today without personal data need not be tomorrow. With the wider availability of open data and new technologies, data can easily be combined so that it does become traceable to individuals. The Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society (TILT), commissioned by the WODC, investigated how European legislation can respond to these unstoppable developments.
Anonymization and legal categorization of data is becoming increasingly difficult and the status of data will increasingly depend on the efforts of the data controller, the researchers concluded. In asking how the legal regime can respond to these developments, the main determinant is what goal the legislature is pursuing in protecting personal data.
The researchers outline several scenarios from which five global strategies can be derived for the future, from an extra strict protection regime to a regime in which protection issues must always be considered on a situation-by-situation basis.
The (Dutch) report De invloed van (technische) ontwikkelingen op het begrip persoonsgegevens in relatie tot de AVG (or: The influence of (technical) developments on the concept of personal data in relation to the GDPR ) was written by dr. Bart van der Sloot, Sascha van Schendel LLM en Joan Lopez Solano.