How To Address Big Data Legal Issues? Some Interesting Proposals From The Italian Supervisory Authorities On Data Protection, Antitrust And Communications

Big Data: a cornerstone of Industry 4.0 and the data-driven economy

One of the key aspects of Industry 4.0 is the importance of the processing of enormous quantities of data (personal and non-personal) for economic, commercial and financial purposes (and social and political ones); not surprisingly, we speak of a "data-driven economy" and this illustrates the importance of Big Data. Data and information are extrapolated, processed and aggregated to obtain reliable information (and in some cases predictive information) that can be used in various sectors: industry, commerce, public health, private health, national security, etc. The data and information are collected from the most diverse areas of human experience (from purchase habits to transport/movement habits, from domestic life to political/sexual/religious preferences, etc.). The development of Big Data has been made possible by the progress made in recent decades by the progress in information technologies, which has allowed an ever-increasing advancement of business intelligence and data science activities.

Therefore, one of the most important challenges to be addressed for the purposes of regulating the activities that distinguish Industry 4.0 is certainly to discipline Big Data: a discipline that cannot be limited only to aspects − albeit fundamental − related to the protection of personal data, but must also take into account other matters, since Big Data affects all economic and social spheres (with important developments also from the political point of view).

The guidelines proposed by the independent Italian authorities: mainly recommendations for the legislator, but not only

Three Italian independent administrative authorities are aware of the importance and complexity of Big Data: the Garante Privacy (the data protection authority − "Garante"), the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (the antitrust and consumer protection authority − "AGCM"), and the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (the communications authority - "AGCOM"), together hereinafter referred to as "the Authorities", which in May 2017 launched an investigation of Big Data, so as to be able to jointly investigate the implications of Big Data on the protection of personal data, on the dynamics of competition in the market and consumer protection, and in the context of the protection of pluralism of information.

This survey resulted in the publication on July 2, 2019, of cooperation...