Cybersecurity, privacy, and health data protection in the digital strategy of the European Union

Abstract

Contemporary societies increasingly rely on the opportunities created by technologies that make possible the production, collection, processing, and reuse of huge datasets to obtain inferences that can be used in the most disparate fields. Among these, healthcare stands out in importance since in medical practice a considerable series of personal information is exchanged and shared. The protection needs of the individual sphere in the healthcare sector acquire a specific scope with reference to the use of information and communication technologies, which allow patients and healthcare professionals to communicate, or the latter among them, in view of the achievement of a series of goals that pertain to the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, rehabilitation and treatment of an increasingly large number of diseases. In such a context, this works aims at proving a synthetic overview on the whole architecture adopted by the European Union in the field of cybersecurity, privacy, and health data protection, which appears fundamental for guaranteeing the fundamental rights of European citizens but also to deal with the challenges posed by the digital transition of contemporary societies.