body: Suppose, a scientist is planning to publish a paper that is about an algorithm which analyzes Wikipedia articles. I'm wondering, if the European General Data Protection Regulation would be relevant in that case.
  
  
  According to Article 13, one has to inform anyone whose personal data is collected:
  
  
  
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  > 1. Where personal data relating to a data subject are collected from the data subject, the controller shall, at the time when personal data
  >  are obtained, provide the data subject with all of the following
  >  information: (...)
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  Article 4 explains, what "personal data" means:
  
  
  
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  > ‘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 (...)
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  (Source: <http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32016R0679>)
  
  
  Wikipedia articles might contain personal data, because each one has an edit history that lists changes and who did them (User accounts or IP addresses). Therefore, each article can be related to "online identifiers" (such as the account or the IP) of its editors. Would the scientist - according to the GDPR - have to inform the editors of all the Wikipedia Articles that he has processed their personal data?
  
  
  
title: How to fulfill the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in science