What does “lawfulness, fairness and transparency” mean under EU Data Protection law?

Photograph of a Young Woman at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. with a Banner, 08/28/1963 — The US National Archives

There are seven basic data protection principles under EU data protection law. The principles lie at the heart of the law and, although they don’t give hard and fast rules, they embody the spirit of the regulatory framework. Therefore, compliance with the principles is a fundamental building block to any good data protection practice. The seven principles are:

1. Lawfulness, fairness and transparency
2. Purpose limitation
3. Data minimization
4. Accuracy
5. Storage limitation
6. Integrity and confidentiality (security)
7. Accountability

The first principle is the principle of “lawfulness, fairness and transparency” (GDPR Article 5 (1) (a)).

Article 5 of GDPR

(1) Personal data shall be:

(a) processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’);

[See also Articles 6 and 9 of GDPR]

The principle of “lawfulness, fairness…