Cross-community discussion with Data Protection Commissioners
The Data Protection Unit of the Council of Europe is providing its support to the organisation of a series of high level meetings and sessions on 13-15 March 2017 during the 58th meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Copenhagen. The events are organised with the participation of the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, the Chair of the Committee of Convention 108, the European Data Protection Supervisor, the Co-Chair of the Article 29 Working Party, the Data Protection Officer of Interpol and the Director of Information Society and Action against Crime of the Council of Europe. The Data Protection Commissioners will be invited to exchange views with ICANN communities on privacy and data protection implications of processing of WHOIS data, third party access to personal data and the issue of accountability for the processing of personal data. The events will provide a better mutual understanding of the underlying questions related to the protection of privacy and personal data and the strengthening of an open and inclusive dialogue on these issue.
For 40 years, the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data - Convention 108 – has been the only international legally binding instrument on the protection of privacy and personal data. Its modernised version, Convention 108+, helps preserving human dignity while providing an enabling and secure framework to free flow of data. Read more and listen to the views of prominent personalities.
Protecting private life
You go somewhere, you buy something, you apply for a job, you pay your bills : you live... and at each of those moments of your life, your personal information is used, collected, processed. In order to protect your right to private life, with regard to the automatic processing of your personal data, the Council of Europe elaborated the "Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data".
Thirty years after its entry into force, this Convention still remains the only binding international legal instrument in the field, with a potential worldwide scope of application.
Convention 108+ Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data
Handbook on European data protection law - 2018 edition
The rapid development of information technology has exacerbated the need for robust personal data protection, the right to which is safeguarded by both European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) instruments. Safeguarding this important right entails new and significant challenges as technological advances expand the frontiers of areas such as surveillance, communication interception and data storage. This handbook is designed to familiarise legal practitioners not specialised in data protection with this emerging area of the law. It provides an overview of the EU’s and the CoE’s applicable legal frameworks. It also explains key case law, summarising major rulings of both the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, it presents hypothetical scenarios that serve as practical illustrations of the diverse issues encountered in this ever-evolving field.
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