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Journal article

When data protection by design and data subject rights clash

Abstract:

• Data Protection by Design (DPbD), a holistic approach to embedding principles in technical and organisational measures undertaken by data controllers, building on the notion of Privacy by Design, is now a qualified duty in the GDPR.


• Practitioners have seen DPbD less holistically, instead framing it through the confidentiality-focussed lens of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs).


• While focussing primarily on confidentiality risk, we show that some DPbD strategies deployed by large data controllers result in personal data which, despite remaining clearly reidentifiable by a capable adversary, make it difficult for the controller to grant data subjects rights (eg access, erasure, objection) over for the purposes of managing this risk.


• Informed by case studies of Apple’s Siri voice assistant and Transport for London’s Wi-Fi analytics, we suggest three main ways to make deployed DPbD more accountable and data subject–centric: building parallel systems to fulfil rights, including dealing with volunteered data; making inevitable trade-offs more explicit and transparent through Data Protection Impact Assessments; and through ex ante and ex post information rights (arts 13–15), which we argue may require the provision of information concerning DPbD trade-offs.


• Despite steep technical hurdles, we call both for researchers in PETs to develop rigorous techniques to balance privacy-as-control with privacyas- confidentiality, and for DPAs to consider tailoring guidance and future frameworks to better oversee the trade-offs being made by primarily well-intentioned data controllers employing DPbD.

Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1093/idpl/ipy002

Authors


More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MPLS
Department:
Computer Science
Role:
Author


Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Journal:
International Data Privacy Law More from this journal
Volume:
8
Issue:
2
Pages:
105–123
Publication date:
2018-04-04
Acceptance date:
2018-02-20
DOI:
EISSN:
2044-4001
ISSN:
2044-3994


Pubs id:
pubs:827821
UUID:
uuid:e85f845d-35cf-4664-aff4-332ab6cc2e02
Local pid:
pubs:827821
Source identifiers:
827821
Deposit date:
2018-03-05

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