Data Protection 4.0 for Industry 4.0

Data protection law as of now is subject to new challenges evoked by the digitalisation of industrial production, the so-called Industry 4.0. It stands for a high degree of connectivity between production systems involving more processing of more personal data. Data protection law is expected to strike a balance between protecting the rights and freedoms of individuals and allowing socially beneficial and desired processing. However, when laws are applied in contexts they were not designed for, they create conflicts. This article illuminates possible incompatibility between the general thrust of data protection law as of now and Industry 4.0 in three regards: concerning the scope of application of the law, its principles of purpose limitation and data minimisation and the collaboration between the numerous involved different parties exchanging the relevant data. Under what is envisioned as “data protection 4.0”, it explores instruments that serve to ease such tensions: anonymisation and pseudonymisation, data ownership rights, reinterpreted data protection principles, and codes of conduct. Lastly, it evaluates the role of collaboration and standardisation under a Common Legal Platform in data protection 4.0.