GDPR Glossary

What is Genetic data?

Data about a person's inherited or acquired genetic characteristics — a special category of sensitive data.

Genetic data relates to a person's inherited or acquired genetic characteristics, typically from analysis of a biological sample, giving unique information about their physiology or health.

It is special-category data and attracts the extra protections of Article 9.

In the Regulation

Art. 9 Processing of special categories of personal data Art. 4 Definitions

Related terms

Special category dataSensitive data — health, race, religion, sexual orientation, biometrics and more — that gets extra protection under Article 9.Biometric dataData from physical or behavioural traits — like fingerprints or facial geometry — used to uniquely identify a person.

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