  Web 2.0, social media, cloud computing, and IoT easily connect people around
the globe, overcoming time and space barriers, and offering manifold benefits.
However, the technological advances and increased user participation generate
novel challenges for protecting users' privacy. From the user perspective, data
disclosure depends, in part, on the perceived sensitivity of that data, and
thus on a risk assessment of data disclosure. But in light of the new
technological opportunities to process and combine data, it is questionable
whether users are able to adequately evaluate the risks of data disclosures. As
mediating authority, data protection laws try to protect user data, granting
enhanced protection to 'special categories' of data. In this publication, the
legal, technological, and user perspectives on data sensitivity are presented
and compared. From a technological perspective, all data can be referred to as
'potentially sensitive.' The legal and user perspective on data sensitivity
deviate as some data types are granted special protection by the law but are
not perceived as very sensitive by the users, and vice versa. Merging the three
perspectives, the implications for informational self-determination are
discussed.
