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This article examines the legal challenges surrounding synthetic data protection, with a focus on the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). After briefly explaining the methods of synthetic data generation and discussing their potential for privacy preservation, the article analyses the shortcomings of the personal\/non-personal dualist approach under the GDPR. It then assesses the possibility of a paradigm change in data protection legislation, moving beyond this binary categorisation. The article argues in favour of establishing clear guidelines for the generation and processing of synthetic data, prioritising the principles of transparency, accountability and fairness. <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/20539517241231277","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,15]],"date-time":"2024-02-15T06:57:40Z","timestamp":1707980260000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":31,"title":["Synthetic data protection: Towards a paradigm change in data regulation?"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8037-5384","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ana","family":"Beduschi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Law School, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-20539517241231277","unstructured":"Regulation 2023\/2854 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2023 on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data and amending Regulation (EU) 2017\/2394 and Directive (EU) 2020\/1828 (Data Act) OJ L 2023\/2854."},{"key":"bibr2-20539517241231277","unstructured":"Arnold C, Neunhoeffer M (2020) Really useful synthetic data \u2013 a framework to evaluate the quality of differentially private synthetic data. 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