Big Data and human rights: toward legal regulation

Abstract

In the absence of a universally accepted definition of Big Data, its attributes are described in the current literature. The Big Data processing is still outside the legal frameworks, so the most significant legal problem is the “contact” with personal data, for which rules have already been established. Any violations in this area directly affect Human Rights, especially the right to privacy. In the case of Big Data, privacy is increasingly seen as an economic right and personal data as having economic value. The need to respect the right to privacy puts the data subject at the center of the legal construction of legal access to personal data who expresses informed consent to operations with his personal data. In the context of Big Data processing, it is necessary to select a more appropriate and dynamic model of informed consent. Although data as such is unlikely to be a right of property object, it should be protected through other mechanisms, such as those aimed at ensuring accountability. It is the development of accountability mechanisms that is becoming one of the main directions in the Big Data regulation.