Data Subject Rights as a Tool for Platform Worker Resistance: Lessons from the Uber/Ola Judgments

Abstract

Data subject rights have been increasingly used to challenge power asymmetries in different contexts, including work. This chapter looks at how platform workers have harnessed their data subject rights in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the wider context of platform worker resistance. The strategic litigation cases against Uber and Ola, brought forth by App Drivers Workers Union (ADCU) and Worker Info Exchange (WIE) before the Amsterdam District Court (ADC), represent a prime example of data subject rights being leveraged by workers in an unconventional and potentially complicated manner. While this is not the first time that data subject rights have been interpreted before courts, these judgments have implications that merit attention from both labour protection and data protection communities. These rulings showcase how data rights are operationalised and envisioned as a tool of resistance, contrasting with how these rights are designed by legislators. These rulings also reveal barriers to the effective exercise of these rights in practice, which should be urgently addressed via an update on the guidelines or via more radical reform. This chapter evaluates the ADC’s rulings through the lens of data protection and shows glitches, mismatches and erroneous views in need of revision in the appeal. It is argued that courts are in a distinctive and critical position vis-a-vis data protection authorities to make these rights work. While there are inherent limitations on these rights (the right of access in particular), courts play an indispensable role in removing procedural barriers and establishing avenues for balancing competing values. At the juncture where the regulatory landscape for platform work are being radically re-configured, data subject rights still, we argue, offer potentials for platform workers as a tool of resistance.

Keywords: GDPR, data rights, right of access, right to data portability, right not to be subject to automated decision-making, right to explanation, Uber/Ola, platform worker, resistance