On 21 January, in Brussels, Belgium, a public hearing was held on the protection of data on the Internet, organised by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament (EP), with the objective of analysing the best way of protecting freedom of expression and pluralism on the internet - in particular online publicity - and, at the same time, the personal data of users.
The public hearing covered the following issues: recording personal data on the Internet; industry measures to minimise threats to protection of data; and the strengthening of European legislation, network security, international cooperation and the growth of the Internet services market.
Also in respect of data protection, the European Day for the Protection of Data was celebrated on 28 January. The Vice-President of the European Commission (EC), Franco Frattini, responsible for the areas of justice, freedom and security, who was present at the ceremony, pointed out the importance of guaranteeing citizen privacy, in particular with respect to personal data protection, as well as with respect to compliance with the rules and applicable legislation.
In Portugal Comissão Nacional de Protecção de Dados (CNPD - National Commission for Data Protection) marked the European Day for the Protection of Data with the public presentation of the DADUS Project at a ceremony which took place in the Auditorium of the Assembly of the Republic. This project was developed by the CNPD within the scope of a protocol signed in 2007 with the Ministry of Education, through the Directorate-General of Innovation and Curricular Development, in order to raise awareness among primary and secondary school pupils about issues of data protection and privacy, to promote conscientious use of the new technologies and to develop civic conscientiousness among young people.
The DADUS project was launched at the end of January 2008, in the mainland's state schools and will later be extended to the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, as well as to the private and cooperative education systems.
Further information:
- ''Are your details caught in the World Wide Web?'' http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/story_page/019-19292-021-01-04-902-20080121STO19257-2008-21-01-2008/default_en.htm
- Public Seminar Programme http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/200801/20080117ATT19091/20080117ATT19091EN.pdf
- Statement from Vice-President Frattini on the occasion of Data Protection Day http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/99&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
- Projecto DADUS http://dadus.cnpd.pt/
- Data Protection in the European Union http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/privacy/docs/guide/guide-ukingdom_en.pdf
