Big Data is currently a hot topic. In the digital economy, Big Data has become an essential value-adding factor which can hardly be ignored by a company. However, the collection and processing of large data amounts is subject to a number of legal regulations, especially in a commercial environment. The reknowned international law firm Bird&Bird has created a checklist together with artegic 23 Questions on Big Data and Law to help companies avoid legal pitfalls when handling Big Data. The checklist deals with German law.
Which data collections or analysis require consent? Is data personal data, if conclusions can be drawn about an individual from a chain of data? Can I determine categories for target groups based on personal data (clustering)? How do we deal with automated decisions from the data analysis? These and other questions create insecurity with many companies dealing with Big Data. The aim of the checklist 23 Questions on Big Data and Law is to reduce this insecurity in companies and create legal compliance for the handling of data, particularly in marketing.
“Big Data is a topic companies can hardly avoid nowadays, especially in the digital economy. At the same time, the sensibility for data protection is increasing in the media, the public, with legislators and decision-makers in companies. Our experience based on our consulting practice shows that data protection has now become a key topic at the level of management and board. The reason is that the correct use of Big Data has become an essential competitive advantage and secondly, that legal security and data protection are indispensable in the Big Data environment”, comments Dr Fabian Niemann, Partner at Bird&Bird on data protection and legal security in the Big Data environment.
“Big Data does not only stand for the collection and understanding of data. The actual possibility of using this data for marketing is becoming the important third pillar. This utilisation involves the planing and implementation of data protection aspects. The specific objectives are the legally compliant collection of consent and the processing of data in compliance with data protection: Legal Big Data”, says Stefan von Lieven, CEO at artegic.