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such as gender, race, colour, language, religion, political opinion, nationality, ethnic
or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth genetic features,
language, disability, age or sexual orientation. Then, there are also some specific
European directives, such as the Employment Equality Directive, prohibiting dis-
crimination on the basis of sexual orientation, religious belief, age and disability in
the area of employment, the Racial Equality Directive, among others prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity in the context of employment, the
Gender Goods and Services Directive, expanding the scope of sex discrimination
regulation to the area of goods and services, and the Gender Social Security Direc-
tive, guarantying equal treatment in relation to social security. 16
Generally, these texts make a distinction between direct discrimination and indi-
rect discrimination. The former is usually described as the situation where one per-
son or group is treated less favorably on one of the above mentioned grounds, while
the latter is commonly described as the situation where an apparently neutral provi-
sion, criterion or practice would put persons of one group at a particular disadvan-
tage compared with persons of the other group. 17 Two exceptions figure repeatedly
in the different legal texts. The first is the case of positive discrimination 18 and the
second is the case in which the discrimination on the basis of one of the mentioned
grounds is objectively justifiable. 19 Positive discrimination involves specific meas-
ures taken with a view to ensuring full equality in practice, that aim to prevent or
compensate for disadvantages linked to racial or ethnic origin, sex or any other of
the above described characteristics. Proportionate differences in individuals' treat-
ment on the basis of sensitive characteristics may be objectively justifiable if such a
characteristic constitutes a genuine and determining requirement or factor, provided
that the objective is legitimate and the requirement is proportionate.
15.5 Data Minimization Principles
Knowledge discovery in databases may come into conflict with both privacy and
discrimination legislation on several points. These will not be covered extensively,
but an example of a privacy violation may be found in the case where personal da-
ta are being gathered without a legitimate purpose, where these data are being
processed in an 'unsafe' manner, leading to for example data leaks, or where these
data are used to undermine the autonomy of the individual. Violations of anti-
discrimination laws may for example occur when data regarding gender, religious
beliefs, ethnicity and the likes are directly used to bestow on a person or a group a
discriminatory treatment or when this is done indirectly, using for example the
technique of redlining or masking. Dissemination of such data or knowledge and
patterns distilled from them may also lead to a violation of the right to privacy or
to stigmatization of individuals and groups. Especially among privacy scholars,
16 <http://www.echr.coe.int/NR/rdonlyres/DACA17B3-921E-4C7C-A2EE-
3CDB68B0133E/0/182601_FRA_CASE_LAW_HANDBOOK_EN.pdf>.
17 Article 2(a) & (b) directives 2000/43/EC & 2004/113/EC.
18 Article 5 directive 2000/43/EC. Article 6 directive 2004/113/EC.
19 Article 5.2 directive 2004/113/EC. Article 4 directive 2000/43/EC.
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