The European Court of Justice has further narrowed the definition of personal data, says Peter Stevens
In July 2014, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave a preliminary ruling on the meaning of “personal data” in two joined cases referred to it by the Dutch courts. The technical guidance published by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office may need to be amended in the light of this decision, which narrows the definition of “personal data”, and so limits the scope of subject access requests.
Personal data & subject access requests
Section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA 1998) provides that, with some exceptions, on written request an individual is entitled to be told whether a data controller is processing any personal data of which he is the subject. If so, he is entitled to have communicated to him, in intelligible form, the information which constitutes that personal data and any information available to the data controller as to its source, and to be told the purposes for which they are being processed and the persons, or classes of persons, to whom they may
