The Value of Privacy: What Does the Personal Data Mean to the Data Subject and Businesses?
The Value of Privacy: What Does the Personal Data Mean to the Data Subject and Businesses?

Author(s): Andreea Şerban
Subject(s): Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, EU-Legislation, Commercial Law
Published by: Societatea de Stiinte Juridice si Administrative
Keywords: privacy; general data protection regulation; personal data; data as commodity; profiling;
Summary/Abstract: In a world where technology is progressing at a very fast pace, it is up to the legislator to come up with creative legal instruments that can answer to the newest and most challenging issue that arose and can arise in practice. In the past decades, privacy has become an important resource for the growing businesses or for the ones already renowned in the market that look for a way of expanding their activity. Knowledge is power, data is money – this phrase is representing the core of the present and upcoming companies that wish to develop or distribute their products. The personal information of natural persons are being targeted and used for determining the future and the direction of the market and interest in products and services. Through the present study we shall look at how privacy has been perceived over time, reflected in relevant jurisprudence and legal acts and how it is now understood by both the data subject and the controller. We will study a case that captures the observed practices of obtaining the consent of the data subject for data processing in return for access to certain services, also answering to the following question: is there a value-for-money relationship between the personal data and the benefits received in exchange of processing of information? This paper will cover the issues of monetized privacy and protection of personal data used in trade and commercial businesses, as well as the impact of the European legislation on such activities.

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