Research at tail end of data protection agenda

A plan for meetings between the European Council, Parliament and Commission to draw up new data protection legislation has revealed that the discussion on the use of personal data in research is not likely to take place until November—making it one of the very last issues to be addressed before an agreement is due to be reached in December.

The Commission first proposed an update to existing data protection legislation in 2012, arguing that the current directive does not sufficiently address technological developments in personal data sharing—such as social media and cloud computing.