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What the roll out of EU data legislation means for you

Nature Biotechnology volume 35, pages 712–713 (2017)Cite this article

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To the Editor:

In the wake of growing concerns about the abuse of big data and personal information, last year the European Parliament adopted the much-awaited “Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Protection of Natural Persons with regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of Such Data”1 (http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/reform/index_en.htm), also known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This new regulation repeals Directive 95/46/EC, the general data protection directive that was first implemented in 1995. GDPR has applicability within the European Union (EU; Brussels) and supersedes national statutes in individual EU member states. It aims to protect not only individuals against abuse of personal data collected by outside entities but also the trans-border flow of such data outside the EU. Adoption of GDPR has several implications for biomedical researchers working on data derived from EU citizens (and for the rights of the citizens themselves).

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References

  1. European Parliament and Council. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016. Off. J. Eur. Union (EU, Brussels, 2016). http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/reform/files/regulation_oj_en.pdf

  2. European Union. Article 29 Data Protection Working Party. Guidelines for identifying a controller or processor's lead supervisory authority. (EU, Brussels, 2016). http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/image/document/2016-51/wp244_en_40857.pdf

  3. Case C-131/12, Google Spain SL and Google Inc. v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) and Mario Costeja González, Judgment of the Court of justice of EU (Grand Chamber) para 80-81 (13 May, 2014). http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A62012CJ0131

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  1. Center for Information and Innovation, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Rajam Neethu

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  1. Rajam Neethu
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Correspondence to Rajam Neethu.

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Neethu, R. What the roll out of EU data legislation means for you. Nat Biotechnol 35, 712–713 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3928

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