Mustn't ask, mustn't tell

David Erdos believes a bid to tighten European data protection will have a chilling impact on social science and humanities research.
Even with the advent of Web 2.0, data protection law is still often seen as technical and only narrowly applicable. Technical abstruseness aside (and data protection’s reputation here is certainly deserved), this understanding could not be more wrong. The existing European data protection framework really is breathtaking in scope. It applies to anything done electronically with any information about an identified or identifiable person – possibly including the dead. According to the European Union, even innocuous details in the public domain are protected (perhaps even the title of an author’s book). Moreover, if the information reveals the particulars of, for example, a person’s ethnic origin, political opinions, religious belief, trade union membership, health or criminality, then it is classed as “sensitive” and subject to even tighter controls. The European data protection framework is not only broad but often onerous. Barring specific exceptions (including a liberal one that can be invoked for journalism, literature and the arts), there is a presumption that individuals will be informed about the processing of data about them and given a right to object, that the processing of “sensitive” personal information will be banned and that no personal information will be transferred outside the European Economic Area without “adequate protection”. Read more...