Today is international Data Protection Day. Yes, that’s official day! Data Protection Day, or as it is called outside Europe – Privacy Day, is celebrated each January 28th already since 2007.
In 2006 the Council of Europe launched a Data Protection Day to be celebrated each year on 28 January, the date on which the Council of Europe’s data protection convention, known as “Convention 108”, was opened to signature.
Now Data Protection Day is celebrated globally. This is the date to raise awareness about the rights to personal data protection and privacy.
Protection of personal data becomes more important each day. People are more and more concerned about how their data is used. EU data protection authorities have received almost 100,000 complaints since EU GDPR is enacted. And just few days ago French authority issued first significant fine under GDPR – €50 million – to Google for “for lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent regarding the ads personalization”.
That is bold move by DPAs to force companies to implement GDPR requirements not just formally and superficially, but according to its spirit and principles.
Number of complaints and news on applied fines for GDPR breaches is clear sign that May 25th, 2018 wasn’t end date of GDPR compliance – rather it was just beginning. We will see more often about such fines and other actions from authorities.
And it’s not just about Europe – countries in other regions, too are enacting similar laws. Even US is debating necessity to adopt federal law.
By the way – to mark the occasion, the Committee of the Council of Europe’s data protection treaty “Convention 108” has published Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence and Data Protection. AI brings new possibilities and new era of data protection challenges – like internet did. So it is just matter of time we will see a new update to GDPR, Convention 108 and other privacy regulation.