Protection of persons in connection with profiling : development in EU law in view of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679)

Abstract

Progressively, individuals are becoming more transparent on the Internet. Every single act carried out by an individual, being sending an email, browsing the Internet or else using social media platforms to communicate with others, leave huge quantities of traces. Corporations gather these amounts of information and by various complex algorithms, they build up and implement data user profiles with the purpose of inferring an assortment of innovative data concerning Internet users. This term paper discusses upcoming personal data protection reform in the European Union. The newly introduced Regulation introduces provisions regarding profiling that will effect a substantial amount of corporations; the result of which would upsurge the responsibilities for entities or public establishments processing personal data. Taking into consideration the extensive scope of the General Data Protection Regulation, it has significant capability to protect the right of data subjects and their interests on the Internet. Nevertheless, unless the principles provided are not construed and understood in a flexible manner, it is uncertain whether data protection law will be capable of keeping up with the technological improvements.