On 11 September 2024, 13:00h - 14:00h CET, LSTS visiting scholar Tommaso Crepax (PhD Candidate at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa) will present his work-in-progress, entitled ‘The Right to Data Portability: Navigating Legal and Technical Complexities through a Legality Attentive Data Scientist Approach’, followed by discussion.
Abstract:
The right to personal data portability was introduced in the GDPR in 2016 and has been highlighted as a key pillar of both the EU Data strategy and the European Digital Single Market. However, its practical implementation remains elusive. Scholars have explored legal, economic, and technical explanations for this, but without successfully activating data portability in practice. My thesis adopts an experimental approach through the lens of a legality attentive data scientist. This perspective reveals legal issues arising from technological implementations requiring data science knowledge, and vice versa, uncovering technical implementation issues rooted in legal ambiguities.
One example is the “meta-moth-phosis” of data portability from a tool to benefit individuals through enhanced data control into a means to benefit the market through data sharing and reuse, coupled with the absence of essential elements in the obligation to "make data available," specifically the lack of a clear definition of the quantum debeatur—or rather, the quanta (data) debeatur. The principle of data quality will be used to address this—counterintuitively—quantitative gap in data. The thesis aims to go beyond existing literature and critiques, to identify and address problems and solutions that are visible only through a hybrid approach that integrates data science with law.
This event will be in a hybrid format (both on-campus and online). Interested participants wishing to take part can register by sending an email to Pablo.Rodrigo.Trigo.Kramcsak@vub.be.