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Author: Yannick Alexander Vogel

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Recalibrating the Data Economy: journal article

Towards a System of Access and Benefit Sharing

Yannick Alexander Vogel

European Data Protection Law Review, Volume 9 (2023), Issue 3, Page 333 - 344

This article discusses a challenge in the developing data economy. Since data is a valuable resource that can be easily extracted from individuals, its aggregation has led to concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few. At the same time, official authorities are increasingly relying on data to further goals of public interests and increasingly purchase data from private actors in order to aid them. This trend raises concerns about the appropriation of freely appropriable resource data and the sale thereof back to communities from which the data was originally appropriated. A situation similar to what has previously been seen in the field of bio-piracy law. To address this challenge, the paper suggests drawing inspiration from the historical exploitation of the Global South for their resources and the development of the ‘Access and Benefit Sharing’ system, which curtailed resource exploitation. The current European efforts in digital regulation, such as the European Data Strategy and the Digital Services Act package, do not sufficiently reflect the notion of access and benefit sharing, which is a missed opportunity in the regulatory strategy on data. The article identifies parallels between elements of an access and benefit sharing system and several sections of novel legislation flowing from the European Strategy for Data and the Digital Services Act package. The article finally argues that the similarities between the historical exploitation of resources and the current data buying practices of official authorities are not so different in nature, as both lead to repetitive economic disadvantages for communities with little to no effective economic claim to their resources. A system of access and benefit sharing in the data economy could help improve its sustainability and mitigate the exploitation of communities worldwide for their collective data. Keywords: data economy, sustainable data sharing, data driven development

Stretching the Limit, The Functioning of the GDPR’s Notion of Consent in the context of Data Intermediary Services journal article open-access

Yannick Alexander Vogel

European Data Protection Law Review, Volume 8 (2022), Issue 2, Page 238 - 249

The European Union strives to keep its Data Economy competitive and fit for the future. The proclamation of data as ‘new oil’ requires the envisioning of new ways to make this ‘oil’ available to data-driven industries. The recently adopted Data Governance Act (DGA) is a tool that increases the possibility of data-flows towards data driven industries, while simultaneously promising to maintain uncompromised data protection standards for individuals. The DGA sets the legislative framework for Data Sharing Services or Data Intermediaries. These services stand in between data subjects and data users, and serve as actor that make demand- and supply sides of data meet. When handling personal data, the Data Governance Act pivots on several notions from the GDPR, for instance that of consent. In doing so, it becomes questionable whether or not the notion of consent functions, in the DGA, in the manner as it was envisioned to function in the GDPR. A strict reading of the notion of consent makes its application in the structure of the Data Governance Act difficult to image for reasons explored in this paper. Most pressing are the elements that make up the notion of consent. Those elements being that consent should be specific, freely given and informed. These three elements are put under strain in the DGA’s multi-party, data-pool, or data exchange relationships. This paper highlights how the Data Governance Act states its measures are designed to ‘fully’ respect the GDPR as starting point. However, when examining the notion of consent, true GDPR compliance may be an unobtainable goal or at least an unscalable one in some contexts of the Data Intermediary Services. Keywords: Consent | Data Governance Act | Data Intermediaries | Data Pooling | Data Holders | Data Users | European Strategy for Data

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