About
Dr. Amit Zac is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich. His research aims to develop a generalized method for assessing compliance with and violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The project’s goal is to transform the current automated compliance measuring practices that are confined to specific types of websites along with other limitations.
Challenge
In order to accomplish his goal, Zac needed to scrape data from over a million public websites to ensure a representative internet sample. The complexity of the task, as well as the importance of the unbiased and geographically unskewed data, led him to collaborate with The Bright Initiative. Using Bright Data’s Data Center and ISP Proxy services, Zac reliably and securely collected the necessary data from a broad spectrum of websites.
The Bright Initiative is a perfect fit for our research needs. As private companies often own the data we want to study, The Bright Initiative provides us with the tools to bridge the gap between private companies and research institutes. This partnership is exactly what we were looking for.
Amit Zac PhD, ETH Zurich
Impact
By applying advanced Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning techniques to the data extracted, he was able to analyze a plethora of compliance practices and measure them against GDPR’s stringent benchmarks. His research may shed light on the patterns of non-compliance within certain companies and industries, and the underlying motivations behind these behaviors. This exploration has the potential to significantly shape how GDPR is implemented and monitored in the future, driving the enforcement of data privacy rights, improving online transparency, and ultimately fostering trust in digital spaces. The work could play a pivotal role in paving the way for an internet where privacy norms are more than just rules, but a respected standard.
“If private companies truly wanted to make society better, they would grant access to their data for researchers to conduct their studies. The Bright Initiative is the best we can ask for in today’s world to get closer to the unbiased data we need. There are many ways to realize the vision of combining business with making a social impact as The Bright Initiative does.”
Amit Zac PhD, ETH Zurich
