The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union is a milestone in protecting individuals from the unlawful use of their data. In a data-driven society, economy, and government, this protection has become essential to guarantee fundamental rights. In addition to its direct impact on the legal systems of all Member States, the GDPR has a major influence on third countries that have adopted similar regulations (e.g. Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, and many others). In this way, the EU Data Protection Regulation has established itself as the “gold standard” of data protection, providing guidance to address the challenges posed by new technologies and new ways of creating, using and sharing personal data. Understanding the structure of data protection in the EU is therefore essential to grasp its impact on individual rights, public administration, business models, and even technological development.

 This lecture aims to provide a structured overview of the EU Data Protection Regulation, and to offer tools to understand the regulatory structure of the EU Data Regulation. The lecture will cover the following topics: 

• Introduction to EU law
• Development of the EU data protection regulation
• Legal structure of data protection in the EU
• Role of national and sectoral laws
• Data protection as fundamental right
• Principles of data protection
• Lawfulness of personal data processing
• Anonymization and pseudonymization of personal data
• Special categories of personal data
• Rights of the data subject
• Transfer of personal data to third countries
• Responsibility of the controller and the processor
• Security of personal data and personal data breach
• Open Data Directive
• Data Governance Act
• Data Act