On the occasion of the European Data Protection Day, FEDMA, the Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing, together with Ms Anna-Maria Corazza-Bildt, Member of the European Parliament, hosted an event entitled Data & Privacy: Striking the Right Balance.
The panel of experts (Mr Martin Abrams, Mr Olivier Proust, Mr Todd Ruback, and other participants) examined the urgency of finding the right balance between the potential of data for delivering better services and the importance of respecting individual’s privacy and keeping trust both online and offline. The discussions examined how self-regulation could help finding this middle stance to respond to the increasing use of data at both European and global level.
In looking at the opportunity for industry to develop self-regulation in the field of data protection and privacy, this event was the occasion for FEDMA to launch its Charter on Ethical Data Management for the Data-Driven Marketing industry, as first step towards the review of the organisation’s existing codes of conduct and the development of a dedicated self-regulatory programme.
More precisely, every year on 28 January, the Commission celebrates Data Protection Day. Three years after the European Commission proposed a reform of the EU’s data protection rules to make them fit for the 21st century (see IP/12/46), 2015 should be the year of the negotiations’ conclusion. The reform presented is a package with two instruments:
- a Regulation setting out a general EU framework for data protection
- a Directive on protecting personal data processed for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences and related judicial activities.
All the experts agreed that there is need to continue and to intensify law enforcement cooperation and that robust data protection rules will foster more effective cooperation based on mutual trust. According to them the future legislation should be a regulation and not a directive, which will take into account the global economy and achieve a win-win situation for citizens and business.