DIGITALEUROPE response to public consultation on Article 29 Data Protection Working Party draft guidelines on automated individual decision-making and profiling for the purposes of Regulation 2016-679

INTRODUCTION

We welcome the fact that Article 29 Working Party (WP29) is aiming to adopt guidelines on automated individual decision-making and profiling. These types of processing are covered by complex provisions in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and raise challenges in various sectors.

Many issues are being addressed in the draft guidelines with helpful recommendations. We focus here on points that we believe require further attention in view of the finalization and adoption of the guidelines.

As a general point, we are concerned by the fact that these WP29 guidelines, like previous ones, go beyond the scope of the GDPR. Given the GDPR has changed the nature of previous WP29 opinions to binding guidelines, WP29 needs to ensure the guidelines remain within the scope of what the law foresees providing clarifications and interpretations but not creating new legal requirements. The democratic legislative process is otherwise undermined and the guidelines do not ultimately serve the purpose of providing legal certainty.