Brexit: an opportunity to depart from the GDPR?
Brexit: an opportunity to depart from the GDPR?
Data sharing and data re-use for developing the Artificial Intelligence Industry has long been seen as a key regulatory objective in the UK, and Brexit, coupled with the Covid-19 crisis, is now seen by policy makers as an opportunity to inject more flexibility within the UK data protection framework. The purpose of this paper is to show that the seeds of the British pragmatic and data sharing-centered approach to data protection had already been planted prior to Brexit. While it is true that Brexit, combined with the Covid-19 crisis, is now accelerating its growth, there appears to be strong arguments that such an approach was and remains consistent with the GDPR. These arguments of consistency thus weaken the claim that departing from the GDPR should be seen as a necessity, even if the intention is to boost data sharing and grow the UK artificial intelligence industry. Furthermore, this paper shows that the juxtaposition of the Covid-19 crisis with Brexit has already been used as a means to underplay ethical concerns and overlook key democratic safeguards, which are not necessarily grounded in data protection law. More than its detrimental impact on data sharing and re-use practices, such a trend can only demonstrate the intrinsic limits of the data protection framework.
75-86
Stalla-Bourdillon, Sophie
c189651b-9ed3-49f6-bf37-25a47c487164
2021
Stalla-Bourdillon, Sophie
c189651b-9ed3-49f6-bf37-25a47c487164
Stalla-Bourdillon, Sophie
(2021)
Brexit: an opportunity to depart from the GDPR?
Revue des Affaires Européennes, 2021 (1), .
Abstract
Data sharing and data re-use for developing the Artificial Intelligence Industry has long been seen as a key regulatory objective in the UK, and Brexit, coupled with the Covid-19 crisis, is now seen by policy makers as an opportunity to inject more flexibility within the UK data protection framework. The purpose of this paper is to show that the seeds of the British pragmatic and data sharing-centered approach to data protection had already been planted prior to Brexit. While it is true that Brexit, combined with the Covid-19 crisis, is now accelerating its growth, there appears to be strong arguments that such an approach was and remains consistent with the GDPR. These arguments of consistency thus weaken the claim that departing from the GDPR should be seen as a necessity, even if the intention is to boost data sharing and grow the UK artificial intelligence industry. Furthermore, this paper shows that the juxtaposition of the Covid-19 crisis with Brexit has already been used as a means to underplay ethical concerns and overlook key democratic safeguards, which are not necessarily grounded in data protection law. More than its detrimental impact on data sharing and re-use practices, such a trend can only demonstrate the intrinsic limits of the data protection framework.
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Published date: 2021
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Local EPrints ID: 500054
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/500054
PURE UUID: b1a220a1-2e76-45e2-8cb2-44cc33a2cca3
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Date deposited: 14 Apr 2025 16:37
Last modified: 15 Apr 2025 01:53
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