Browsing by Author "Spasova, Tedi Miroslavova"

The present thesis examines the privacy concerns raised from the friction of two dimensions: protection of personal data on the one hand, and technological innovation on the other. In order to address the different challenges that blockchain technology poses to the GDPR, the article provides a simplistic description of the complex blockchain architectures and functionalities. The main legal issue to be assessed is the determination of roles of all the personal actors involved in the personal data processing conducted through distributed ledgers within a corporate context. From a privacy perspective, it is necessary to establish a clear allocation of responsibilities and liabilities in order to preserve the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects and avoid data protection breaches. The purpose of this work is to discover how private organisations can perform privacy compliant international data transfers made through blockchain technology. The legal research is done in the light of the current European Data Protection Regulation and the existing guidance provided by the European Data Protection Authorities, having regard of the relevant legal doctrine. Finally, the thesis concludes arguing that the valid GDPR is a sufficient and technologically neutral legal instrument able to guarantee an appropriate privacy protection to the data subjects, whose personal data has been transferred globally through blockchains, by effectively defining the elements of compliance deriving from the processing of personal data in a business environment.