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Data Protection in the Digital Single Market Should the United Kingdom adopt the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation after Brexit?
Shruthi Velidi Rice University 2018
Introduction With the increasing reliance on technology for day-to-day tasks, there is also a greater need for protection. With every tweet, every iMessage, every Facebook checkin, every Yelp search, every Google Map navigation, data is stored. In fact, the reason these technology services are able to provide such a personalized experience is because of the data, data about the individual that is being collected. Every time autocorrect finishes a sentence, a history personal communication data is being processed and analyzed in order to accurately predict the words the next time. When Consumers are looking for convenience in their smartphones, tablets, etc. and companies are will-
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ing to supply this demand. However, a legal issue arises when these “smart technologies” are powered by the exploitation of personal consumer data. How much personal data can a company access to provide consumers with a “better” experience? With this rise in “intelligent” technologies and this push for more accurate personalization, most people do not consider the privacy risks they are agreeing to. Furthermore, the technology sector is growing at an increasing rate with more and more tech companies turning into multinational corporations. With personal data being transferred across countries, and even continents, there needs to be a basic standard of safeguards in place to protect individuals. With recent data privacy breaches
involving companies such as Yahoo (8 million data breaches into UK citizens’ accounts) and Facebook/ WhatsApp, there also needs to be a tightening of data security policies. The United Kingdom’s newest Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, has recently announced that data protection law is of key importance. She is pushing for the United Kingdom to tighten its data protection policy, which includes aligning with the European Union on its new General Data Protection Regulation. The new General Data Protection Regulation, set to come into effect in 2018, is meant to standardize data protection legislation across the European Union, ensuring the same level of security for personal data across all 28 member states