Portal:Data Protection/Introduction

Privacy is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the protection of your data is closely related. In a democratic society, privacy is an essential enabler for other fundamental rights, such as the freedom of expression and to form and join associations. However, growing commercial interests are pushing for weaker privacy protections and loose legislation on the use of personal data that would facilitate the collection, sharing, processing, 'mining' and sale of personal data.

In the digital age the collecting, sharing and 'mining' of data has become much easier than before and legislation needs to adapt to meet this challenge. But the opposite is happening. The revision of the European regulation concerning the protection of personal data, initiated by the European Commission in 2012, is proposing weak safeguards that do no protect citizens' privacy. Legislation must defend the citizen and it is also essential that policy-makers force companies to be transparent and accountable to citizens in the protection of our data.

In March 2013, the European Parliament voted to adopt a regulation on data protection. This regulation continues to contain serious weaknesses.