In issue No. 6 (2025, vol. 20) of the journal Economic Policy published an article by Antonina Levashenko, Head of the Laboratory for Analysis of Best International Practices at the Gaidar Institute, and Sergey Sinelnikov-Murylev, Senior Research Fellow at the Gaidar Institute, on the current challenges of the digital economy in the field of personal data.
In the article “Personal Data: Economic Problems and Legal Regulation” the authors systematize the problems and challenges of the digital economy for the existing legal regime for the protection of personal data. They emphasize that the current norms of Russian legislation do not respond to the challenges associated with the use of personal data for the individualization of advertising and services, as well as with the use of digital user profiles in the competition between platforms for audience.
The aim of the study is to identify ways to resolve some of the identified problems. The article proposes possible solutions to issues related to the violation of user interests and restrictions on the development of digital markets. Among the violations of user interests are invasion of privacy, the use of negative practices by platforms in data collection, and the creation and implementation of digital user profiles that are contrary to their interests, including price discrimination and discrimination on social grounds. In terms of regulating the uncontrolled collection and use of users' personal data, the authors consider the possibility of reforming the institution of consent to the processing of personal data in order to optimize the resources spent by businesses and users on formal compliance with current legislative requirements. Among the problems related to the state of digital markets, the authors examine situations of market monopolization by major platforms, the use of pricing algorithms as anti-competitive practices, insufficiently regulated conditions for access to data, including restrictions on the development of scientific research and regulatory barriers to cross-border data transfers. The authors propose solutions at the level of both legislative norms and interaction between digital businesses and relevant regulators.