Tracking Personal Data Trackers

By the end of May 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (commonly known in the Netherlands as 'AVG') will become law. This creates opportunities for consumers to take control of their personal data in a way the old 'Wbp' did not allow for. However, most consumers have no clue which companies hold onto and/or use their data and are therefore unable to utilise this right. Moreover, many companies struggle with this. They are either small and do not have clear guidelines on how to handle such, now sensitive, data, or are too big to keep track of where that data is. This creates a large susceptibility for both fines as well as customer dissatisfaction once this has been made public. Companies have to face the fact that they have to handle this data responsibly.

There are two sides to this idea. The first is consumer focused. Firstly, the idea is, to create an automated application that will either 'follow' your online behaviour and analyse usage patterns to identify which companies have and or use your personal data. It would then allow you to easily request data removal or alteration from all companies found to store your personal data. The results of these requests could also be bundled to collectively take action against a company that consistently fails to meet these requirements for example, or to indicate whether or not a company will handle your personal data well. The other idea is to create a tool that will do a similar thing within your business. This tool will identify where sensitive data with regards to the AVG is within your operation, and alert you if there is action to be taken. This is perhaps the more profitable side of the idea as there are many businesses that could use this.