EIRP Proceedings (May 2012)
Protection of Personal Data – actual and proposed issues
Abstract
“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. Anidentifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to anidentification number or to one or more factors specific to his physical, physiological, mental, economic,cultural or social identity. There are different ways in which an individual can be considered ‘identifiable’. Aperson’s full name is an obvious likely identifier. But a person can also be identifiable from otherinformation, including a combination of identification elements such as physical characteristics, pseudonymsoccupation, address etc. International and national authorities tried to adopt different types of regulations inorder to protect individuals’ personal data and to inform them with respect to their rights. The legalprovisions are continuously changing according to the new realities (society and economy are changing,individuals are using different kind of communications). In order to have a strong protection of personal dataand unitary rules for all member states, the European Commission published in January 2012 a proposal for aGeneral Data Protection Regulation on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personaldata and on the free movement of such data, which will supersede Directive 95/46/EC. A regulation wasconsidered the most appropriate legal instrument to define the new framework for the protection of personaldata in the European Union: is directly binding upon the Member States, is directly applicable within theMember States and as soon as a regulation is passed, it automatically becomes part of the national legalsystem. The document shall be discussed by the European Parliament and the EU Member States meeting inthe Council of Ministers for discussion. The rules will take effect two years after they have been adopted.
