Ochrona danych genetycznych jako danych osobowych

Abstract

Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person is considered personal data, and as such, is protected by data protection laws. There are, however, a few specific categories of personal data related to the intimate sphere of life, the processing of which is, in principle, prohibited, unless one of several exceptions occurs. Although, early data protection regulations distinguished the state of health as specific category of data, genetic data were not treated as such. Therefore, in the light of Convention 108 (adopted in 1981) and Directive 1995/46, genetic data were treated as “ordinary” personal data. The Polish Data Protection Act from 1997 went further than the Directive 95/46 and listed “genetic code” among specific categories of data. However, the term “genetic code” was not defined in the Act and in practice caused a lot interpretation problems. The General Data Protection Regulation, adopted in 2016 and replacing national laws, including Polish data Protection Act, enumerates genetic data among specific categories of data. In the light of the GDPR “genetic data” means personal data relating to the inherited or acquired genetic characteristics of a natural person which give unique information about the physiology or the health of that natural person and which result, in particular, from an analysis of a biological sample from the natural person in question.