Łukasz Drożdżowski Datenschutzrechtliche Pflichten von Unternehmen bei der Verarbeitung genetischer Daten

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In recent years, there has been a rapid scientific and technological progress in the field of genetic research. On the one hand, with an ever-improving availability of this technology, there is a significant improvement in the quality of health care. On the other hand, the processing of genetic data entails considerable risks for data subjects. This is associated with an increased risk of discrimination and stigmatization of data subjects as well as their biological relatives. In view of the high validity of genetic data, information constituting them can be a particularly serious interference with the right to informational self-determination. Insured and employees can be particularly affected. A violation of a protection of genetic data may also entail a risk of imposing very high fines. For this reason, a proper fulfillment of data protection duties should become particularly important.

However, a processing of genetic data not only implies an application of EU law (General Data Protection Regulation). At the national level, sectoral legislation provides also additional conditions for a processing of genetic data. Although the objective of the General Data Protection Regulation is to ensure a consistent and high level of protection of natural persons and to remove the obstacles to flows of personal data within the Union, the framework conditions governing a processing of genetic data vary across EU Member States. This fact in turn makes a processing of genetic data particularly difficult for cross-border enterprises.