Consent to the processing of personal data: a legal and behavioural analysis. Some Insights into the Effectiveness of Data Protection Law

The article discusses and questions the function of informed consent to personal data processing, as an effective tool for the protection of individuals’ fundamental right to personal data (i.e. privacy), especially in the digital world. Based on an experiment conducted through detection techniques, such as eye-tracking, and a number questionnaires, it discusses some of preliminary results of the study in order to verify the awareness of individuals to the data protection issue and when they give consent to the processing of personal data. The integrated methodological approach, which draws on empirical studies and behavioural analysis, leads to considerations on the relation between law and technology.