Data Privacy and GDPR Handbook

9Governmental Use of Data

Always eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or bed – no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters in your skull.

— George Orwell, 1984

As the world modernizes and goes paperless, governments are also keeping pace. Over the past few decades, technology is integrated into most aspects of state activities, spanning from the ability to file online applications to internal functioning. At the same time, technology revolutions are crucial to develop and increase the efficiency of the state with ambitious projects under development all over the world. While some of these projects are bold (such as China’s project, One China, which aims to give free internet to all its citizens), other undertakings have far more problematic implications (such as the UK’s arrest of citizens protesting the royal wedding prior to the protest itself based on their social media posts).

In this chapter we examine how GDPR interplays with these projects and what exceptions can be claimed by state entities under the regulation. The impact of the exceptions provided to the state under GDPR helps to give the governmental bodies the leeway they require to effectively carry out any future projects. We will also examine the implications of “public-private” partnerships in these projects. Additionally, we shall examine how certain projects can be subject to abuse, considering the lessons in recent history. ...