Challenges Posed by Big Data to European Data Protection Law

The cost of storing and processing vast quantities of digital data has dropped significantly in recent years. Cloud computing services, such as those provided by Amazon, have commodified data processing so that applications that once required supercomputers are now available to anyone with an internet connection and a credit card. When the Data Protection Directive was issued in 1995 the World Wide Web as we understand it today barely existed. The scale and scope of data gathering on citizens could not have been foreseen and so the existing legal framework is challenged by the widespread collection of data on individuals as they surf the web and when they interact with businesses in the real world. Despite the confidence of the Article 29 Working Party established to monitor the effectiveness of the Directive, big data poses challenges that may prove unsurmountable for the existing legal framework.