Big Data and Analytics in the Age of the GDPR

Abstract

The new European General Data Protection Regulation places stringent restrictions on the processing of personally identifiable data. The GDPR does not only affect European companies, as the regulation applies to all the organizations that track or provide services to European citizens. Free exploratory data analysis is permitted only on anonymous data, at the cost of some legal risks. We argue that for the other kinds of personal data processing, the most flexible and safe legal basis is explicit consent. We illustrate the approach to consent management and compliance with the GDPR being developed by the European H2020 project SPECIAL, and highlight some related big data aspects.