The European Metrology Cloud: Impact of European Regulations on Data Protection and the Free Flow of Non-Personal Data

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), 10587 Berlin, Germany

Abstract

New digital technologies, such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) are designed to maximize efficiency, enable economies of scale and develop new services. They offer benefits to users, such as agility, productivity, speed of deployment and autonomy. In the sector of Legal Metrology, it must be ensured that digital system architectures, digital services, and digital infrastructures are legally compatible. To benefit the stakeholders in this sector, the industry, the notified bodies and the market surveillance/verification authorities alike, the digital transformation of Legal Metrology shall remove barriers to innovation within the legal processes and reduce costs and time to market for new digital products. To this end a European consortium has formed to establish a digital quality infrastructure; the “European Metrology Cloud”, designed to support the processes of conformity assessment and market surveillance/verification and the development of reference architectures and new technology- and data-driven services for this infrastructure. With this approach, the digital single market that the European Commission envisions will be fostered. This article analyzes how recent regulations within the digital single market strategy of the commission - the Data Protection Police Directive (2016/679/EU) and the Regulation on a framework for the free flow of non-personal data in the European Union (Regulation (EU) 2018/1807) – may be integrated into the European Metrology Cloud initiative to, e.g. guaranty that its underlying Blockchain approach complies to these norms and exploit their benefits.