Hannes Snellman’s Team at HEL Tech’s Data Privacy Event

Why is data important?

We have seen data referred to as ”new oil”. That’s true – at least to a certain extent. Data can be seen as a commodity essential for the modern society’s engines to keep running. But what makes data interesting is that you won’t often need “production facilities” and that data can relatively easily be copied and thus reside in various different places.

So when do the privacy aspects kick in?

When considering the privacy aspects, data can be divided into two main categories: i) data from which an individual data be identified and ii) anonymous data. The latter category does not usually raise any privacy concerns, while the first category is in the very core of data privacy. Thus, the question basically is to what extent and under what conditions such personally identifiable information i.e. personal data can be used. Obviously, often the mere provision of a service requires processing of some data, but things get more complicated when the data is to be used for some secondary purposes or otherwise outside the scope of the initial purposes. And that is the area for which legislation, such as the GDPR, is to set boundaries. 

What is the role of the data privacy regulations?

To put it simply, data privacy legislation, such as EU General Data Protection Regulation, provides legal framework on how and for what purposes personal data may be used by companies and what kind of controls and rights the data subjects have over their data. 

Meet our team and get more answers at the HEL Tech Data Privacy event on 3 May!