Research on CSRD and the Protection of Enterprise Data Privacy Rights

This study explores the relationship and potential conflicts between the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and data privacy protection. As a key EU regulation promoting corporate sustainability and transparency, the CSRD mandates extensive disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information. Such disclosures create significant personal data protection challenges and may conflict with privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The requirement of detailed cybersecurity reports may expose technical vulnerabilities, thereby elevating data breach risks. The directive may lead to potential over-collection of data that violates the GDPR's principle of data minimization. Disclosing information about upstream and downstream supply chains may potentially infringe upon the personal information rights of both employees and end-users. Through comparative legal analysis, the study reveals how these regulatory tensions disproportionately impact high-risk sectors such as finance and digital platforms, where the common practice of centralized data storage significantly amplifies the potential consequences of security breaches. To comply with the directive while safeguarding data privacy, enterprises should integrate cybersecurity and data protection into their corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework and strengthen data security measures. Establishing cross-departmental collaboration mechanisms and comprehensive risk assessment systems is also essential to ensure compliance. This study provides theoretical support and practical guidance for enterprises to strike a balance between sustainability reporting requirements and data privacy protection.