The right to data protection in the light of personality rights: does it prevent the emergence of data ownership?

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the right to data protection as an integral part of personality rights in the context of property relations. Despite the fact that this right is commonly not considered from the point of view of property rights, the authors tend to believe that such a confrontation is increasingly becoming a fiction: the recognition of this right as an independent fundamental right in EU law does not exclude the possibility of its consideration in the context of property relations, since it is not a classical fundamental right and has a “market basis”. In its turn, the case law of the ECtHR reflects the concept of personality rights in the scope of the article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter – “ECHR”) and this concept developed assumes an approach to property rights as an integral part of personality. In this framework, if the right to the protection of personal data is considered in the context of article 8 of the ECHR it may imply ownership of personal data.