Can the GDPR make data flow for research easier? Yes it can, by differentiating! A careful reading of the GDPR shows how EU data protection law leaves open some significant flexibilities for data protection-sound research activities

Abstract Against the common perception of data protection as a road-block, we demonstrate that the GDPR can work as a research enabler. This study demonstrates that European data protection law's regulatory pillars, the first related to the protection of the fundamental right to data protection and the second regarding the promotion of the free flow of personal data, result into an architecture of layered data protection regimes, which come to tighten or relax data subjects’ rights and data protection safeguards vis a vis processing activities differently grounded in public or merely economic interests. Each of the identified data protection regimes shape different “enabling regulatory spots” for the processing of sensitive personal data for research purposes.