Sunday, January 29, 2017

International Privacy Day 2017

            Yesterday, 28th January, all the world celebrated the right to privacy. We must all fight for this right, because with its violation many others rights are also violated. If you want to have an idea about its importance, imagine your life without your privacy. All dimensions of a person's life is harmed, his relationships, his employability, his socialization, his entrepreneurship, his health, his anonymity, at last, there is not one aspect of the person that is not affected. And it is not only the individual that suffers, the democracy, the rule of law, and the trust in the institutions are also damaged.  One more reason we need combat the human rights violations, when they are broken, the violators could think that they are able to do more and more. This is why can not have impunity in so serious violations, like privacy`s violations. Everybody should understand why we all need to fight against violations of human rights. And when they happened, we all must fight for reparation to the victims.   This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published at. https://www.cute-calendar.com/event/data-privacy-day/19820.htm. The second was published at http://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/data-privacy-day-january-28/. The third was published at https://www.accessnow.org/international-data-privacy-day-we-remind-the-european-council-of-our-rights/

               Privacy Day is celebrated on January 28. Data Privacy Day is an international holiday, which purpose it is to raise awareness and promote privacy education. It is celebrated in the U.S. Canada, and 27 European countries. Privacy Day's education initiative originally focused on raising awareness among teens and young adults about the importance of protecting the privacy of their personal information. The education focus has expanded over the past four years to include families, consumers and businesses. In addition to its educational initiative, Privacy Day promotes events and activities that stimulate the development of technology tools that promote individual control over personally identifiable information; encourage compliance with privacy laws; and create dialogues among stakeholders interested in advancing data protection and privacy. The international celebration offers many opportunities for collaboration among governments, industry, academia, NGOs, privacy professionals and educators. Data privacy is the relationship between collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. Privacy concerns exist wherever personally identifiable information is collected and stored - in digital form or otherwise. Improper or non-existent disclosure control can be the root cause for privacy issues. Privacy issues can rise in response to information from a wide range of sources, such as healthcare records, criminal justice investigations and proceedings, financial institutions and transactions, biological traits, such as genetic material, residence and geographic records.                                                                Cyber security is a growing concern. Data Privacy Day is observed every January 28 as a reminder to protect and safeguard private data. Privacy Day was first initiated by the council in Europe in 2007. In 2009, the U.S. house of representatives recognized National Data Privacy Day and the U.S. senate in 2010. It has continued through the efforts of various groups and organizations since.
             Yesterday we celebrated the International Privacy Day by reminding the members of the Council of the E.U. representatives of their obligation to protect the rights of citizens. We sent a letter, signed by several international NGOs, outlining the importance of the rights to privacy and data protection and urging them to reach a conclusion on the General Data Protection Regulation without any further delay. Yesterday, January 28th, marks the anniversary of the signature of the European Union's Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regards to Processing of Personal Data. The convention was the first international treaty to recognise the protection of personal data as a right, and its purpose remain as relevant today as when it was first draft in 1981: "To secure for very individual, whatever his nationality or residence, respect for his rights and fundamental freedoms, and in particular his right to privacy, with regard to automatic processing data relating to him." For more than thirty years, this convention has been a cornestone of privacy legislation and data protection in Europe and beyond. Yet, it is not an adequate guarantee: In today's digital era, the rights of citizens need support in the form of binding law. The mass surveillance revelation of 2013 highlighted how inadequate current data protections really are. In order to provide citizens with control over their personal information, laws must be up to date, comprehensive, and provide for the rights of users. In 2012, the European Commission released a proposal intended to update and modernise the data protection framework. The 2012 Regulation would update the directive for tech advances, increase protection for users rights, and replace these 28 different legal regimes with one strong, universal standard. While the passage of the Data Protection Regulation is not the ultimate or only solution, it is critical part of the broad reform required to achieve better protections of fundamental rights. As we said many times, privacy is a key building block for free and democrstic societies. It is an enabling right, without which we can not enjoy freedom of expression or other rights. Without privacy, we self-censor, limit our associations, and are unable to fully exercise our freedom of conscience. For these reasons we must safeguard the privacy of out communications, whether on or offline. but privacy is about more than protecting the communications. We must have trust in the systems upon which we build our open and democratic societies. Our growing dependence on technology amplifies the threat to human rights when users, and businesses lose trust in these systems. The past few years have been hard on privacy, and damaging to overall levels of citizen trust in public and private institutions. Giving citizens more control over their personal data will be key to rebuilding this trust. This control includes being informed about how your data is being processed (collected, stored, and used), guaranteeing that your data is being processed and with your consent. Finally, you should have the right to access and correct data that has been collected about you. E.U. institutions are now more than ever before accountable for its policies and choices regarding the right to privacy and protection of personal data.

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