ON THE CHANGING REGULATIONS OF PRIVACY AND PERSONAL INFORMATION IN MUSIC INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

International audienceIn recent years, MIR research has continued to focus more and more on user feedback, human subjects data, and other forms of personal information. Concurrently, the European Union has adopted new, stringent regulations to take effect in the coming years regarding how such information can be collected, stored and manipulated, with equally strict penalties for being found in viola-tion of the law. Here, we provide a summary of these changes, consider how they relate to our data sources and research practices, and identify promising methodologies that may serve researchers well, both in order to be in compliance with the law and conduct more subject-friendly research. We additionally provide a case study of how such changes might affect a recent human subjects project on the topic of style, and conclude with a few recommendations for the near future.This paper is not intended to be legal advice: our personal legal interpretations are strictly mentioned for illustration purpose, and reader should seek proper legal counsel