Neurorights and Neural Data Towards Legal Protection
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-2695/22316Keywords:
neurotechnologies, neurorights, neural data protection, mental privacy, cognitive libertyAbstract
The rapid development of neurotechnologies – capable of detecting, interpreting, and influencing brain activity – raises new legal challenges, particularly in the realm of personal data protection. Technologies such as brain-computer interfaces, electroencephalograms, and brain stimulation are expanding beyond the clinical context, finding application in work, education, entertainment, and the military. Data derived from brain activity, known as neurodata, raise unprecedented questions regarding their nature, classification, and legal framework, as they reveal deep, often unconscious mental content traceable to the individual. This paper analyzes the adequacy of the current legal framework, starting with EU Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR), in regulating such data, highlighting the need for a new legal paradigm based on the recognition of neuro-rights: cognitive liberty, mental privacy, personal identity, fairness, and non-discrimination. These rights are essential to protecting the mind as an inviolable space of individual dignity and autonomy. Particular attention is given to the workplace context, where the imbalance between employer and employee makes consent to the processing of neurodata problematic and potentially flawed. At a time when the mind is and will increasingly be technically accessible, the article proposes specific regulation of neurodata as an autonomous category, supported by the adoption of preventive ethical assessment strategies and the introduction of dedicated educational pathways, to safeguard freedom of thought and fundamental rights in the neuro-digital society.
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