The legal aspect of data

Jos explained the legal aspect of data based on Dutch law and European law. Interestingly, that in Dutch law and many other jurisdictions, you cannot own the data. It is because you can own a Property’ (or ‘assets’) comprises of all things and all other property rights. Moreover, the properties or ‘things’ have to be tangible objects that can be controlled by humans. Therefore, with data, the ‘ownership’ can only be obtained by agreement or contract.   In the raise of COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to have data to understand the spreading of the disease and creating statistical measurements and giving the correct policy. However, the health data of a person should not be treated as public data. It is sensitive information of an individual. Therefore, the European GDPR law is important because it is also protected personal data like the genetic data of a person because health data and genetic data is regarded as sensitive data.  

Combination of data helps to create a better picture

In addition to that, Michiel discussed ahti (Amsterdam health and technology institute) which is a not for profit CBS microdata certified organization kickstarted in 2014 by Amsterdam city. It creates a change and achieves impact by connecting public and private partners.   The organization focus on Entrepreneurship and data-driven innovation. The organization helps to link various data to create a better assessment of the situation and giving a prediction on the future measures on the various issues, including health. In the current crisis, it is important to link the data with the demographic, economical which can impact the health aspect of a person. Since the influence of the social economy condition is quite significant in maintaining health.   Based on this webinar, we know that data is very important and it is a very complicated subject when it comes to legality because different data have to be treated differently and every country has different regulation/law regarding data protection and the legality of data usage.  

You can watch the Webinar here!