🇪🇺GDPR and Meta Earth

The "General Data Protection Regulation" (GDPR) is a regulation introduced by the European Union to establish standards for data protection and privacy. It officially came into effect in May 2018. This regulation applies to companies, individuals, or organizations located within the European Union region, as well as those providing products and services to this region.

Compared to the past, GDPR expands the scope of personal data, covering any information related to identifiable natural persons. According to GDPR, data subjects have the following rights:

l Right to be Informed: Data subjects must be informed in a simple and understandable way about how their personal data is collected and processed.

l Right to Erasure: Data subjects can request the deletion of their data.

l Right to Restrict Processing: Data subjects can restrict the processing of their personal data.

l Right to Data Portability: Data subjects can receive and transfer their data elsewhere without undue restrictions.

GDPR provides detailed provisions for the rights of data subjects, which align with the principles of Meta Earth. Meta Earth is founded on the principle of "Self-sovereign Identity." ME Network does not store any personal data on the blockchain; instead, it uses hashed values that have been processed through encryption techniques. This means that data subjects have complete control over their data, ensuring their rights.

In a distributed network, using Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Merkle tree technology, peer-to-peer communication nodes only need to verify a portion of the hash to confirm the data subject's real identity. This implies that Meta Earth does not collect data, and data is not stored directly on centralized servers. Data subjects' rights in data collection, processing, storage, and transmission are all protected at the technical level.

However, even though Meta Earth was designed from the outset to ensure data sovereignty and privacy protection, GDPR and blockchain are not perfectly compatible due to technological developments. The main issue stems from the fact that GDPR was created in the context of centralized server data processing, and its introduction was closely related to the misuse of data by tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Meta (formerly Facebook), and others. These centralized server companies, represented by these tech giants, actively collect data, store it in centralized data centers, and have exclusive and absolute processing rights over the data. This is reflected not only in their proprietary data centers, where they have rights over the databases, but also in their terms of service, where individuals are considered mere renters of their accounts, so data is deemed to belong to the company.

Since distributed ledger technology is relatively new, and GDPR is a general legal framework, not specifically designed for the blockchain industry, there remains uncertainty in many aspects of their alignment. Blockchain technology is rapidly evolving, and legal regulations typically lag behind technological advancements. Our goal is to find areas of alignment to ensure compliance with GDPR. Therefore, our approach is to strive to align with GDPR as closely as possible and protect the personal data of every user, safeguarding their privacy. We maintain an open stance towards the future and uphold the principle of "Self-sovereign Identity," respecting and defending the data subject's right to control their own data.