"Our thoughts can be recorded" - what is neural data and what protections exist in the EU?

Some experts argue that neural data should be subject to greater protection, he writes € news.

Experts say there is a need for stronger EU protections against the collection and resale of neural data collected by brain technology devices.

Brain technology devices already on sale collect data from your brain to combat anxiety and depression, improve sleep or monitor students' focus while they're taking tests, the Telegraph reports.

In September, California passed changes to its Consumer Privacy Act that included more protections for neural data, making it one of only four states to do so.

A look at what brain data is being collected, what rights people have and what the EU is doing in this developing area of ​​data protection.

What is neural data?

Rafael Yuste, director of the NeuroTechnology Center (NTC) at Columbia University, describes neurotechnology as anything that records or changes the activity of the brain's nervous system.

"Most of these technologies are seen in hospitals, such as electroencephalogram (EEG) machines that measure electrical activity in the brain," he continued.

These machines and the data they collect, Yuste continued, fall under medical laws and have strong protections "around the world."

In the EU, medical devices undergo conformity assessments to ensure they meet legal requirements, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Devices labeled "high risk" must receive an additional opinion from expert panels before being awarded a European Conformity (CE) mark.

Yuste said consumer devices don't have the same kinds of protections, making the data they record available for sale.

"This data is medical, even though the device may be more consumer electronics, so we think this should be very private information and should be protected," he said.

In April, the US-based Neurorights Foundation published a report on the data protection policies of 30 prominent neurotech clothing companies.

The report found that companies could share data with third parties and that the extent to which they could or could not resell the data was unclear.

The question of what can be done with the data collected is something that regulators and companies are grappling with, according to Linda Clark, a partner at US law firm Morrison Foerster in the Privacy and Data Security Group.

"The question is whether any of us can really give meaningful or informed consent with this kind of data, where we may not fully understand what's being captured," Clark said.

"The companies that are collecting it are still not sure what they can use it for either," she added.

"Our thoughts can be recorded"

In some cases, Yuste said, some artificial intelligence (AI) systems can use that neural data to read our thoughts.

Last December, a research team from the University of Technology Sydney, Australia developed what they call a "portable, non-invasive system that can decode silent thoughts" to turn them into text.

Participants in the study wore an EEG that recorded their thoughts while silently reading passages of text.

The team's artificial intelligence, called DeWave, translates the EEG signals into words and sentences from the collected data.

Yuste calls this study the beginning of what could be "a systematic use of neurotechnology to decipher language with major applications for the consumer market."

"The brain is not just another organ of the body, it is the organ that generates all of our mental and cognitive activity," said Yuste.

"Our thoughts, memories, emotions, imagination... can be recorded," he added.

What protections exist in the EU for neural data?

The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has existing protections for consumer data, such as the right to access information held about you or the right to correct your personal data, according to Bojana Bellamy, president of the global information institute Center for Information Policy Leadership.

Bellamy believes lawmakers should use legislation already in place, either the GDPR or recommendations from bodies like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to deal with the data these new consumer neurotechnologies collect.

"We have many laws. When you put it all together, there's a pretty interesting set of laws that would apply to this in a very comprehensive way," she said.

A July study by a panel of experts in the European Parliament says that neurodata can be explicitly added to an article of the GDPR.

It also points out that more work needs to be done to minimize the risks of the neurotechnologies that collect this data in the future, especially when "enhanced by the transformative and transgressive power of AI".

Experts suggested that the EU put in place a series of measured responses, such as studying how the data collected can be used with AI, teaching people about the risks and benefits of neurotechnologies and creating an EU data space for save the collected data. /Telegraph/