Data Protection Evidence Wiki: Engaging Empirical Evidence for Policy and Practice

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a cornerstone in global data protection legislation. However, its real-world impact is difficult to measure. Existing evaluations are fragmented across media, reports, academic scholarship, and the European Commission’s evaluations. While the GDPR has advanced citizens’ digital rights, it has received much criticism for its inefficacies. This project seeks to bridge the gap between the GDPR’s theoretical aspirations and its tangible outcomes. The project is based on completed underpinning research, which systematically synthesises and reviews empirical evidence from 380 studies of the GDPR from 1995 – 2022.

The aim of this project is to establish an AI-based interactive digital resource (database) which synthesises the empirical evidence of the GDPR and makes it accessible for industry, policymakers, and technology designers. This is an interdisciplinary project which facilitates knowledge exchange and creates impact between academia, policymaker and technology industry. This project will deliver a pivotal, evidence-based toolkit for designing privacy-centric technologies and specific policy brief and industry report that translate empirical evidence into legal practice and informed policymaking. This would help ensure companies’ legal compliance, refine business models, and reform policies.

Through such database, this project will address the disconnect between the GDPR’s theoretical aspirations and its real-world effects. It responds to a critical demand for evidence-based tools that consolidate and translate complex empirical data into a clear, accessible format, helping stakeholders understand its effectiveness, and to make adjustments to its implementation or amendment where possible.