The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) contains regulations on the handling of personal data. It came into force on 25 May 2018. It applies throughout Europe. As a European regulation, it is directly applicable in all member states and has priority of application over conflicting national data protection laws.

^{(Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC)}

The term 'personal data' means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ('data subject'); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

^{(Art. 4 No. 1 GDPR)}

'Processing' means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.

^{(Art. 4 No. 2 GDPR)}

The right to informational self-determination is a manifestation of the general right to privacy and first emerged in this form in 1983 following the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling on the census. It is intended to give individuals the opportunity to decide for themselves which personal data may be processed and disseminated by third parties, and to what extent.

^{(Source: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung: Das Recht auf Informationelle Selbstbestimmung, accessible online at: www.bpb.de/gesellschaft/digitales/persoenlichkeitsrechte/244837/informationelle-selbstbestimmung, last accessed on 06 July 2020))}

'Consent' of the data subject means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject's wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her.

^{(Art. 4 No. 11 GDPR)}

Data protection law does not recognise implied consent through conduct (conclusive consent), such as might be conceivable, for example, in the context of the right to one's own image.