There is on-going public criticism and concern around practices and techniques of identification on digital media and the mass collection of personal data by platforms. But what is ‘digital identity’ and how is it mutually produced by digital companies and legal regulations?

The workshop is intended to address legal issues relating to targeted advertising and, in particular, the question of when data used for advertising purposes loses its personal relation (Art. 4 No. 1 GDPR), i.e. becomes anonymous, so that the GDPR no longer applies to it. 

Civil identity includes data such as name, home address, date of birth and other classic markers. For the advertising industry, however, other identity-forming factors are more important, such as income, hobbies/interests, approximate residential area, mobility data or data about users’ end devices. Against this background, the question arises as to when data relating to such a “digital identity” loses its personal reference to the extent that it is considered anonymized.