We’re announcing a new service offering to support researchers with data protection compliance for data access under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
Online platforms play a significant role in society today. All sorts of people, businesses and other organisations use these platforms every day to access information, communicate with others and even provide goods and services. With this reach and indispensability, such platforms end up with a huge amount of power and influence over these online activities, including through systems for content ranking and recommendations, content moderation and also advertising.
The EU’s Digital Services Act recognises this significance and the impact it can have on fundamental rights, democratic processes, public health and the safety of minors. This is why the Act is focused on imposing rules for a safe, predictable and trusted online environment. And as part of this, the DSA also makes provision for access to platform data for researchers in the EU.
The rationale for this data access is simple – it is needed to overcome the “black box” nature of very large online platforms and search engines so that we have the opportunity to understand and address the systemic risks that these services can create. It that independent research can be carried out using access to data to bridge information gaps and contribute to the development of risk mitigation.
However, access to platform data is not unconditional. To take advantage of the data access pathways available under Article 40 of the DSA, researchers need to demonstrate that they can handle data responsibly and ethically, and in particular in accordance with the GDPR. Researchers therefore must contend with the cultural shift of platform data becoming more difficult to access and needing to be more precise about their data with a robust data protection posture.
We recognise that this can be challenging for many researchers, which is why we are now offering a new service to support this work. Our data protection compliance for DSA data access service, we help researchers and civil society organisations strengthen their data access applications and complete the necessary data protection work that comes with this. We can help identify appropriate legal bases for processing, identify risks and appropriate safeguards, and develop compliance roadmaps.
If you’re a researcher or civil society organisation looking for this kind of support, get in touch by sending an email or booking a call directly with one of our specialists.
