The short answer is: No. According to the new EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR), any personal and sensitive data can only be processed if participants have agreed to this – usually in the form of written (sometimes oral) informed consent. Also, data underlying copyrights – e.g. in the form of a collection of newspaper articles – cannot be shared unless all copyright holders have given their permission. Data creators must certify that any legal and ethical issues have been resolved.

In case of questions about ownership rights, please consult your institutional legal team or the responsible curator at Discuss Data before submitting the data to Discuss Data.