CANCELLED: Two Concepts of Information in the GDPR

Information is a central concept in information privacy law. This is unsurprising. Information is the substance which provides the rationale for the existence of the area of law. Yet, there is no clear definition of information in primary or secondary legislation or jurisprudence. This paper aims to add to the granularity of understanding of the concept of information in data privacy law and, taking the GDPR as its focus, advances the following thesis: There are two different roles for the concept of information in the GPDR, the substantive boundaries of the concepts populating these roles differ and these differences are significant for the efficacy of the GDPR in protecting individuals' rights. 

Dara Hallinan is a legal academic working at FIZ Karlsruhe. His specific focus is on the interaction between law, new technologies – particularly ICT and biotech – and society. He studied law in the UK and Germany, completed a Master’s in Human Rights and Democracy in Italy and Estonia and wrote his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel on the better regulation of genetic privacy in biobanks and genomic research through data protection law. He is also programme director for the annual Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference and editor of the bi-weekly Data Protection Insider.