Abstract

The study enquires the difficult balancing between access rights regarding automated treatment of personal data under the Gdpr and trade secret protection as defined in the Directive Eu 2016/943. The first section defines the scope of algorithmic transparency demanded by artt. 13- 15; 58, par. 1 and 35 Gdpr and then questions the suitability of trade secret protection with regards to the information concerning the inputs, the outputs and the systemic functionalities of algorithmic processing tools. Under these premises, the paper considers the balancing solutions given by some German and Italian case law as well as by the recitals of both the Gdpr and the Trade Secret Directive. In conclusion, the study proposes a «modulated» trade secret protection regime regarding the automated processing of personal data.