Data protection as fundamental right

In a joint statement at the European Data Governance Forum in Paris on 8 December, European data protection authorities have issued a statement in which they insist that data protection is a ‘fundamental right’ in Europe. In the declaration by the ‘Article29’ working group, they assert the protection of personal data as a fundamental right, and call for improvements in digital literacy and more options to report data protection violations. They also stress the importance of keeping surveillance operations within proportion.

The adoption of new European rules for data protection is now scheduled for 2015, and discussions are still under way. Andrus Ansip, Commissioner for the Digital Single Market, made data protection a top priority of his mandate. The Latvian Presidency, starting 1 January 2015, also included data protection on its priority list.

European Data Governance Forum