Risks of Profiling and the Limits of Data Protection Law - Discrimination and Privacy in the Information Society - page 146

is a risk of identification or re-identification, will lead to an inflation of the per-
sonal sphere. In some cases, applying data protection law may be ineffective and
even counterproductive.
To counter the drawbacks that currently flow forth from the application of data
protection legislation, a first option could be to differentiate between different
types of data (identified, identifiable, non-identifiable). While this would make
data protection law more flexible and practical it will not necessarily address all
the issues associated with profiling, nor remedy all the drawbacks of applying data
protection law in the context of profiling. Therefore, in addition to the data centric
approach, we should focus more on the actual goal of the profiling exercise and
determine on the basis of the actual risks associated with this goal which safe-
guards should apply. Not only would such an approach likely provide more pro-
tection to the individual, it would also allow for a better balancing of the interests
of the data subject and those of the data controller.
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