Towards a holistic regulatory approach for the European data economy: Why the illusive notion of non-personal data is counterproductive to data innovation

The European Data Economy initiative is built on the belief that the current regulatory environment is not capable of unleashing the full potential of the data-driven economy. The initiative focuses on "non-personal data" as a way to complement data protection rules that regulate the processing of personal data. The article argues that the notion of non-personal data as a starting-point for new data innovation policies is counterproductive for three fundamental reasons: datasets are often mixed and the boundaries of personal data are too fluid to act as regulatory anchor; having two separate regimes applicable to mixed datasets might lead to strategic behaviour of firms exploiting this regulatory rivalry; and data has economic value irrespective of its legal classification, and there is no evidence that an elusive zone of non-personal data is more essential as innovation input. We conclude that a holistic approach to "data" as such, which a priori incorporates data protection considerations in its design, is more likely to deliver a successful innovation policy