Designing privacy-friendly data repositories: a framework for a blockchain that follows the GDPR

Abstract

Purpose

The paper posits that a solution for businesses to use privacy-friendly data repositories for its customers’ data is to change from the traditional centralized repository to a trusted, decentralized data repository. Blockchain is a technology that provides such a data repository. However, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) assumed a centralized data repository, and it is commonly argued that blockchain technology is not usable. This paper aims to posit a framework for adopting a blockchain that follows the GDPR.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses the Levy and Ellis’ narrative review of literature methodology, which is based on constructivist theory posited by Lincoln and Guba. Using five information systems and computer science databases, the researchers searched for studies using the keywords GDPR and blockchain, using a forward and backward search technique. The search identified a corpus of 416 candidate studies, from which the researchers applied pre-established criteria to select 39 studies. The researchers mined this corpus for concepts, which they clustered into themes. Using the accepted computer science practice of privacy by design, the researchers combined the clustered themes into the paper’s posited framework.

Findings

The paper posits a framework that provides architectural tactics for designing a blockchain that follows GDPR to enhance privacy. The framework explicitly addresses the challenges of GDPR compliance using the unimagined decentralized storage of personal data. The framework addresses the blockchain–GDPR tension by establishing trust between a business and its customers vis-à-vis storing customers’ data. The trust is established through blockchain’s capability of providing the customer with private keys and control over their data, e.g. processing and access.

Research limitations/implications

The paper provides a framework that demonstrates that blockchain technology can be designed for use in GDPR compliant solutions. In using the framework, a blockchain-based solution provides the ability to audit and monitor privacy measures, demonstrates a legal justification for processing activities, incorporates a data privacy policy, provides a map for data processing and ensures security and privacy awareness among all actors. The research is limited to a focus on blockchain–GDPR compliance; however, future research is needed to investigate the use of the framework in specific domains.

Practical implications

The paper posits a framework that identifies the strategies and tactics necessary for GDPR compliance. Practitioners need to compliment the framework with rigorous privacy risk management, i.e. conducting a privacy risk analysis, identifying strategies and tactics to address such risks and preparing a privacy impact assessment that enhances accountability and transparency of a blockchain.

Originality/value

With the increasingly strategic use of data by businesses and the contravening growth of data privacy regulation, alternative technologies could provide businesses with a means to nurture trust with its customers regarding collected data. However, it is commonly assumed that the decentralized approach of blockchain technology cannot be applied to this business need. This paper posits a framework that enables a blockchain to be designed that follows the GDPR; thereby, providing an alternative for businesses to collect customers’ data while ensuring the customers’ trust.

Citation

Al-Abdullah, M., Alsmadi, I., AlAbdullah, R. and Farkas, B. (2020), "Designing privacy-friendly data repositories: a framework for a blockchain that follows the GDPR", Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, Vol. 22 No. 5/6, pp. 389-411. https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-04-2020-0050