This study examines the impact of recently introduced personal data protection legislation of the European Union (EU) on the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe. It compares the...Show moreThis study examines the impact of recently introduced personal data protection legislation of the European Union (EU) on the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in Europe. It compares the competitive position of the EU in relation to the United States (US), which is in many respects the market leader in the field of AI. It finds that the degree of freedom for the collection and handling of personal data by companies working with AI is central for the functioning of machine-learning and deep learning. The wide definition of personal data, as has been constituted by the EU in the Breyer case, has resulted in a wide variance of data being labelled personal data through the EU regulatory scope. Therefore, the legal framework in the EU that deals with nearly all data is the recently implemented General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), since this is the appropriate framework for personal data. This study finds that the GDPR severely limits the freedom to collect and process personal data on the long-term by companies, most notably through the "right to be forgotten" and the "right to explanation". These rights, deriving from the GDPR, have several negative effects on the ability of European companies to use personal data to develop their AI systems, which negatively affect their competitive position vis-à-vis the US, which still has more relaxed data protection regulation. However, we are starting to see that the European data protection model is being implemented in other jurisdictions. The US has announced the California Consumer Protection Act, which echoes some key provisions from the GDPR, but is still being reviewed by the state of California. Moreover, due to several factors that are discussed in the study and the so-called “Brussel’s effect”, this study finds that it is highly likely that the trend of privacy norms stemming from the GDPR being copied by the US will continue and therefore will ‘level the playing field’ for European and American firms developing AI.Show less
This thesis examines the effects that the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union could have for personal data protection and handling. In particular it investigates how the EU General...Show moreThis thesis examines the effects that the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union could have for personal data protection and handling. In particular it investigates how the EU General Data Protection Regulation introduced in May 2018 will be implemented into a post-Brexit United Kingdom.Show less
Since the digital revolution of the early 2000’s, the amount of online personal data has grown exponentially. Thanks to services such as e-mail, online shopping and social media, (private)...Show moreSince the digital revolution of the early 2000’s, the amount of online personal data has grown exponentially. Thanks to services such as e-mail, online shopping and social media, (private) companies gather more and more personal information of their users. This is not only interesting for commercial parties; authorities are, in the context of combating terrorism, more interested in this kind of information. This has also put the right to privacy under a lot of pressure. Data protection in the European Union has been successful, through the Safe Harbor Principles, the EU was capable of creating a framework of rules safeguarding privacy and data protection for US based companies operating in Europe. However, it was not capable of dealing with the rapid changes of the digital revolution and the urge for more security after the nine-eleven terrorist attacks in 2001. Many questions were raised over the effectiveness of data protection in the post nine-eleven era, with the Snowden revelations as the absolute low point. The Snowden revelations have lead to the case Schrems v. Data Protection Officer, where the Safe Harbor Principles were put in question. This thesis attempts to investigate the validity of the Safe Harbor Principles through examining various pieces of case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The results are surprising; throughout the years, many inconsistencies and legal uncertainties emerged which do pose a threat to the Safe Harbor Principles.Show less
