Online Platforms to the Test of Regulation (EU) 2016/679. What Protections for Data Sharing in the Collaborative Economy? (Le piattaforme online alla prova del Regolamento (UE) 2016/679. Quali tutele per la condivisione dei dati nell'economia collaborativa?)

This article aims to analyzes the possible weak sides that the application of the new Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (or GDPR) could reveal in the field of collaborative economy, and more specifically about the work of online platforms. A brief introduction to the sharing economy shows the fundamental concepts to fully understand the new production model which is revolutionizing the current economic system. The main focus of this article is on how fundamental is for the online platforms to collect and process personal data of their users. The third paragraph presents an analysis of the most critical profiles of the Regulation in regard of the collaborative economy. The GDPR provides a definition of personal data that does not take into account other types of information, such as “automated” or non-personal data, on which the collaborative economy platforms base their commercial action. It is also necessary to reflect on the safeguards set up by the GDPR for sensitive data, ie information that helps to identify a person under particularly relevant aspects, such as ethnicity, religion or political ideology; is the processing ban for these data also respected by the platforms? An issue of vital importance is the effectiveness of the consent given by the interested party to the collection of information concerning him; Regulation (EU) 2016/679 must prevent the practice that saw the platforms process specific data without the person having any knowledge of it. The article then discusses the right to data portability, highlighting how this should encourage collaboration between the various platforms with a view to interoperability of systems, and the cross-border transfer of data from European citizens to third countries, which is a particularly relevant in the light of the recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice