EXPloring opportunities and challenges for Emerging personal DaTa Ecosystems: Empowering humans in the age of the GDPR

Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft FFG

This interdisciplinary research project aims to resolve key tensions between providing personalized services and the right to privacy, by envisioning new human-centric personal data ecosystems (PDEs) in which personal data can only be collected and processed under the control of the data subject. While the right to privacy is not new, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will considerably contribute to the implementation of this right and provides new opportunities to study the way in which a balance between the right to privacy can be achieved through data portability or the right to access and modify personal data. In the project, we will analyze how GDPR is perceived and implemented in practice, what key barriers hinder its implementation, and how the implementation of GDPR can be improved by changing the socio-technical configuration of actors. We will use an interdisciplinary approach to develop a roadmap towards human-centric PDEs in Austria, which describes the current state of personal data processing in Austria, conceptualizes technical requirements of human-centric PDEs, develops the concept of personal knowledge graphs, discusses barriers and challenges ahead of human- centric PDEs, and envisions technological, social, and economic opportunities that human-centric PDEs will bring.

Finally, our project will connect Austria - for the first time - to the global MyData movement which aims to empower humans with their own personal data - enabling novel business models, innovative technologies, and R&D projects that not only benefit citizens within and beyond the borders of Austria, but also foster economic growth while respecting the right to privacy.