January 28th, European Data Protection Day

Today is European Data Protection Day, coinciding with the date on which the Council of Europe signed Convention 108 in 1981, with the aim of regulating automated data processing.

In terms of borders, this day is not only celebrated at the European level, but it has become an international celebration, with many countries celebrating this date, generally known as ”Data privacity day”.

The main objective of this commemoration is to make citizens aware of the importance of the processing of their data, informing them of their rights and the actions they can take to exercise them.

The right to the protection of personal data is a fundamental right of all individuals that translates into the power to control the use made of their personal data. This control prevents that, through the processing of our data, information about us that affects our privacy and other fundamental rights and civil liberties may become available.

Data protection regulations, and specifically Articles 15 to 22 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016, provide that any citizen may exercise with the data controller his or her rights access, rectification, opposition, deletion (“right to be forgotten”), portability and opposition to the processing of automated decisions.

In 1992, a public body known as the Spanish Data Protection Agency (Agencia Española de Protección de Datos) was created in Spain to ensure compliance with the applicable laws on this matter.

Therefore, if you have evidence or indications of non-compliance with the regulations, you can file a claim so that the Agency can carry out the corresponding inspection to determine whether an infringement has been committed and, if appropriate, impose the relevant sanction.

However, before filing a claim on the aforementioned rights, it is mandatory to exercise them before the responsible entity through a reliable means of communication.

Finally, when we talk about data protection violations, it is important to remember that not only can administrative offenses be committed, but we can also find ourselves with actions that can be qualified as crimes provided for and punishable under our Criminal Code.

Briefly, the crimes related to data protection contained in our Criminal Code are crimes against privacy, identity theft, threats, coercion and harassment, slander and libel, computer damage, fraud and fraud, sexual freedom and indemnity and hate crimes.

Therefore, if you find yourself in any of these situations in which your fundamental right to the protection of your personal data has been violated, either administratively or criminally, we recommend that you contact us to offer you the corresponding legal advice in order to assert your legitimate rights.

Article written by Cynthia Zárate