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 with 'third parties', processing, 'mining' and sale of personal data.

Privacy protecting legislation, faced with the fact that in the digital age the collecting, sharing and 'mining' of data has become ubiquitous, has to adapt to continue protecting citizens. 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 safeguards that are too weak to effectively protect citizens' privacy.

In March 2013, the European Parliament voted to adopt a regulation on data protection. This regulation continues to contain serious weaknesses. In 2015 the regulation is being negotiated in a trialogue between the European Commission, Parliament and European Council.