Beyond

The Council of Europe has released this hard-hitting short film to highlight the dangers posed by those who wish to illegally obtain private data.

The film shows a data intruder running through a building and downloading one victim's personal data at home, another's medical records during an examination by a doctor and a third victim's bank details during a transaction at his bank. It ends with a reminder that the Council of Europe has a convention on data protection.

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 – 40 years of protection

On 28 January 2021 the Council of Europe has celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Convention 108, which was open for signature on 28 January 1981. For 40 years, has influenced and shaped the protection of privacy and of data protection in Europe and beyond. Its modernised version (known as Convention 108+) will continue to do so.