Data security mechanisms: the ideal concept bridging the gap between legal data minimisation requirements and big data ?

Data is nowadays considered to be the new oil. As it is a valuable resource, public and private actors tend to use and process a greater amount of personal information. This can lead to both privacy and data protection issues. In the journey towards better protection levels for the individual, the European institutions adopted the new data protection regulation (GDPR). This legal instrument provides security mechanisms such as encryption, privacy by design and pseudonymisation. The aim of this research is to assess whether these security mechanisms can, in the healthcare sector, protect personal data on an effective way. A specific attention will be paid to privacy regulations, and whether these should be more far reaching in order to safeguard both privacy and data protection fundamental rights in the age of big data.