Author:

Keywords:

data protection, lawfulness

Abstract:

Data protection rules are not particularly praised for their legal clarity or certainty. This vagueness is of course the product of the framework’s broad scope and vocation to be technology neutral and future-proof. One of the pivotal concepts in data protection law that may suffer from such vagueness is ‘lawfulness’. Yet, while most people may interpret this term in an ordinary language fashion, its meaning and scope seem to have narrowed in the General Data Protection Regulation.