Open Data Protection: Challenges, Perspectives, and Tools for the Reuse of PSI

Open data debate and the PSI (public sector information) legislation have focused so far on the access to public, rather than personal, data for reuse purposes. As a number of cases discussed before some European Data Protection Authorities have shown over the past years, however, conditions of access to PSI for reuse purposes may raise issues of data protection. Consider commercial and land registers, case law databases, public deliberations, vehicles registrations, so-cioeconomic data, and more, in light of such techniques as big data analytics. Cor-respondingly, it is likely that the reuse of PSI will increasingly concern principles and criteria for making personal data processing legitimate. The aim of this paper is to examine today’s legal framework and the technical means that may enable the lawful reuse of personal data, collected and held by public sector bodies. Whereas openness and data protection are often conceived as opposed in a “zero sum game,” the paper explores whether a “win-win” scenario is feasible.