The Brussels Privacy Hub (BPH) is organising a Doctoral Seminar series to give the opportunity to Ph.D. candidates working on privacy and data protection topics at the Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) to present and discuss their work in progress. The aim of the series is to offer Ph.D. students at all research stages a training ground to refine and practice debating their scientific work, and to receive qualified feedback and questions from their peers and privacy and data protection experts. To this aim, each seminar will include a short presentation by the Ph.D. candidate, followed by an open discussion session with the audience. Seminars are also open to external participants. Find more information here.
On 18 January 2021, Andrès Chomczyk Penedo will present his PhD project on 'Data protection in open banking: how can we explain data subjects what is going on with their data?'.
For questions on registration, please reach out to laura.drechsler@vub.be
ABSTRACT
Open banking is a regulatory trend that appeared in the mid-late 2010 and its origins can be traced back to the Payment Service Directive 2 and the Open Banking initiative. Both initiatives intended purpose is the same: allow the free flow of information, as part of the data-driven innovation ecosystem, between the financial services industry to promote competition between businesses and better conditions for users only when they expressly authorize it. As such, consumers’ decisions are given an important role in open banking regulations. These decisions can only be made if users have a proper understanding of what is happening with their data. In this respect, the role of information as a safeguard is crucial.
The issue of information and transparency regarding data processing activities when it comes to open banking is besieged on several fronts: on an industry specific focus, effective information provision in the financial services industry across Europe, as well as in the rest of the world, is currently suffering and in a need for a change, as shown by studies conducted on the matter; on the other hand, the traditional vehicle used when complying with data protection regulations to provide information, privacy policies, have been demonstrated to be ineffective in its current form to achieve its intended purpose. Besides that, the complexity of both the data processing activities themselves as well as the involved data flows introduce further complexity to any potential explanation. However, new techniques and technologies can be applied to address these issues.
As such, this presentation seeks to provide an understanding of the current regulatory map dealing with open banking and how data protection regulations, both incumbent and upcoming, interplay with them when it comes to information and transparency due to data subjects.