Right to object

Art. 21 GDPR and Art. 22 GDPR

As we learnt in the module "The GDPR explained", any processing of our personal data requires a legal basis. As a reminder, the list of permissible legal bases can be found in Art. 6 GDPR. We can object to the processing of our personal data on two of the legal bases:

• Public interest (condition e) - The processing is based on the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.
  
• Legitimate interest (condition f) - The processing is based on the legitimate interest of the controller.

The GDPR particularly emphasises our right to object if our data is used for direct marketing. In this case, the controller must act immediately in the event of an objection and may no longer use our data for these purposes. 

In all other cases, the controller must either cease processing after an objection or demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for continuing to process the data.

Note

If you are now wondering what the legal bases a-d look like, here is a brief preview of the following pages.  With these legal bases, you can either not object to the processing of the data or there are other ways to stop the processing of the data:

• Consent (a) can be revoked.
  
• A contract (b) can be cancelled.
• c) and d) are either legally binding or vital, so we cannot object to the processing.