Consent and accountability: the poles of online personal data trade

Abstract

Since the dawn of the new millennium, the rapid spread of the web has disrupted every aspect of everyday life, perhaps even in a latent way. The world wide web is a tool that can add new shades of colour to the freedom of expression, it can explore the unknown and it can find answers to every question.

However, the use of this incredible tool comes at a price: the total disclosure of personal data and the consequent loss of privacy. In fact, surfing the Internet makes the 'personal data' of each user available to an indefinite number of recipients. This expression could then be oxymoronic: what remains of 'personal' in the data put on the web? The dissemination of sensitive data opens the way to a further question: who is in control, and therefore who is responsible for this dissemination?

The answer to these questions makes it necessary to examine the nature of the data placed on the Net, as well as the dense weave of the accountability system that is emerging in the jurisprudence of the national and supranational Courts.