On January 10, 2017, the European Commission unveiled the “last major Digital Single Market initiatives” addressing Europe’s digital future.  These initiatives comprise the following:

• A proposal for a Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications (E-Privacy Regulation) (see our post here);
• A Communication on “Building a European Data Economy”; and
• A Communication on exchanging and protecting personal data in a globalized world (see our post here).

(There is also a proposal for a Regulation on data protection rules applying to European institutions which InsidePrivacy is not reporting on.)

This post summarizes the Commission’s Communication on “Building a European Data Economy” (formerly referred to as the “Free Flow of Data Initiative”).

Background

The Data Protection Directive, and soon the GDPR, provides the foundation for the free flow of personal data throughout the EU.  However, Member States have imposed data localization restrictions for various reasons (e.g., in relation to patient health records, for auditing or law enforcement requirements).  In addition, the GDPR and Data Protection Directive only provide for the free flow of data within the EU in relation to personal data, not non-personal data.

The Communication sets out to address these data localization requirements and transfer barriers.  In addition, the Commission uses the document to address “emerging issues” that the Commission believes could lead to problems in the growing European “data economy” (a loose term that refers to the growing network of industrial data, machine-generated data related to the Internet of Things, and data pools generated by and for autonomous machinery, self-driving cars, and machine learning tools).”
Continue Reading European Commission Unveils Data Economy Package: “Building a European Data Economy”