Title: .A.1. THE FAIRNESS PRINCIPLE

Any processing of personal data must be lawful and fair to the individuals concerned (article 6.1.a). This fairness principle is abstract and difficult to evaluate. In legal theory we refer to the ‘abstractness’ of this kind of principles as ‘open texture’, indicating the impossibility and undesirability of rigid and detailed articulation of concepts and principles that anticipate a host of indeterminate future events. The question is not whether group or individual profiling as such infringes the fairness principle. A lot will depend on the particular context of each case and on the checks and balances built into the actual practice, that should allow stakeholders (like the data subjects) enough bargaining power within the process of collecting and processing of personal data.