Adjusting to the GDPR: The Impact on Data Scientists and Behavioral Researchers

Rapid growth in the availability of behavioral big data (BBD) has outpaced the speed of updates to ethical research codes and regulation of data privacy and human subjects' data collection, storage, and use. The introduction of the European Union's (EU's) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018 will have far-reaching effects on data scientists and researchers who use BBD, not only in the EU, but around the world. Consequently, many companies are struggling to comply with the Regulation. At the same time, academics interested in research collaborations with companies are finding it more difficult to obtain data. In light of the importance of BBD in both industry and academia, data scientists and behavioral researchers would benefit from a deeper understanding of the GDPR's key concepts, definitions, and principles, especially as they apply to the data science workflow. We identify key GDPR concepts and principles and describe how they can impact the work of data scientists and researchers in this new data privacy regulation era.