Data & It Law Week, vol. 30: personal data & their value, data protection for small businesses

The article gives an overview of the most interesting articles in the area of data & it law.

ECJ: Personal data & the definition of the word

The European Court of Justice had analyzed the meaning of the word personal data pursuant to the Directive 95/46/EC in its Joined Cases C-141/12 and C-372/12.

It concluded that data relating to an applicant for a residence permit contained in an administrative document, such as the ‘minute’ at issue in the main proceedings, are personal data within the meaning of the Article 2(a) of the Directive. Such an applicant also has a right of access to all personal data concerning him which are processed by the national administrative authorities within the meaning of Article 2(b) of that directive. For that right to be complied with, it is sufficient that the applicant be in possession of a full summary of those data in an intelligible form, that is to say a form which allows that applicant to become aware of those data and to check that they are accurate and processed in compliance with that Directive.

The value of personal data

In this interesting article, The Washington Post had published results of a team of researchers based in Italy, in which researchers tried to analyze, how much would people ask for an access to their personal data. It turned out, that it was 2.72 euros. The location data and calls were the most valuable, in comparison to data about media.

It is an interesting result in terms of the discussion about data protection policies. The most important safety measure for the protection of personal data is the requirement for the consent for data collection. However, the majority of users do not have problems giving the consent in exchange for the services they wanted. And without looking at the terms and conditions of the services.

These conclusions are very interesting especially in the light of the Google Case and ECJ´s tendency to consider data protection to be the “super-right”.

Data protection rules for small businesses

The Guardian had presented an interesting list of legal issues small businesses should not forget about, when they decide to sell online.

Among other things, you may read about consumer rights and the protection of consumers, especially in European context. Moreover, it is important to deal with credit card data and to comply with PCI-DSS standards.

Quick links

Working document on the future EU-US international agreement on the protection of personal data

Some iOS functions allow monitoring of personal data