GDPR and Blockchain Technology in the New Multifaceted Scenario of Health Data Protection: Overcoming the Tensions Between Technology and Law

The EU General Data Protection Regulation n. 679/2016 (GDPR) stands as an element of support for the development of the digital economy. Among the many facets of society and areas of the economy that it influences, the GDPR also impacts on scientific research that uses personal data. The paper addresses the most important aspects of the GDPR that are relevant for the purposes of data protection in health research. Then, the study leverages the points of contrast between the “train of innovation” on which the new Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs; of which blockchain is the most celebrated example) travel at full speed and the rules contained in the GDPR. And indeed, despite the many tensions between the two actors (e.g., right to be forgotten, data controllership etc.) blockchain technology could be significantly propaedeutic for health research and for healthcare as a whole, and it could even reflect its advantages on the very culture of privacy regulation, by making data-protection mechanisms more efficient and by improving transparency in GDPR compliance paradigms. As a key to understanding, the paper uses one of the guiding principles of the GDPR: that of not hindering, but rather supporting technological progress. For this reason, blockchain will be deeply examined in its most relevant characteristics to investigate its extensive potential and, before that, its laborious compatibility with the legal requirements of the European regulation on privacy and with the main interpretative contributions from Europe’s regulatory Authorities and Courts.