OOAA’s contribution to the European Data Protection Board’s public consultation on the processing of personal data based on ‘legitimate interest’

OOAA took part in the public consultation promoted by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) on the draft Guidelines concerning the processing of personal data on the basis of ‘legitimate interest’ under Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR.

In particular, through our contribution, we asked the EDPB to provide further clarification on some central issues such as:

• the definition of ‘other forms of scientific research’, which may constitute legitimate interests for data controllers;
  the borderline between legitimate interests of a generality of third parties and public interests;
  the criteria for determining when a purpose can ‘reasonably’ be pursued through less intrusive data processing;
  the requirements for considering a legitimate interest as ‘compelling’, thus justifying the failure of data subjects’ requests to object to processing.

The contribution was prepared by Fabrizio Sanna and Enrico Pernice, experts in privacy law.

Taking part in this consultation with the EDPB represented a valuable opportunity for the firm to contribute, also on behalf of some of its clients, to the public debate on issues of fundamental importance for the protection of privacy and the security of personal data, in a context in which the current legislation on the subject risks not keeping pace with the rapid and incessant technological development.