The marketability of personal data: a parallel between the status of personal data and the legal regulation of cells and tissues

Abstract

Social and technological changes are generating vast and growing amounts of personal and health data. Market and public actors have also recognised the importance of this data and its enormous potential, thus the need to use it is growing. In connection with the use of personal and health data, it is essential to examine the legal nature and marketability of personal data, as this is a fundamental factor in determining whether and what type of contract it can be the subject of.
The legal nature and marketability of personal data should be considered in parallel with the regulation of human cells and tissues, since cells and tissues of the human body, such as gametes in humans and embryos in the human womb, are undoubtedly considered to be part of the human body and human beings, and therefore enjoy a certain degree of human dignity. The protection of personal data also derives from the right to informational self-determination derived from human dignity. Because of their derivability from the same fundamental right, it is worth examining and looking for links between the rules on the marketability of cells and personal data. At the same time, the use of cells and tissues is not generally prohibited, but the legislator has set a framework that strikes a balance between the interests of the donor and the recipient.