Background information
The rules for data protection in the EU institutions, as well as the
duties of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), are set out in
the new Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. These rules replaced those set out in Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 in December 2018.
The EDPS is an increasingly influential independent supervisory
authority with responsibility for monitoring the processing of personal
data by the EU institutions and bodies,
advising on policies and legislation that affect privacy and
cooperating with similar authorities to ensure consistent data
protection. Our mission is also to raise awareness on risks and protect
people’s rights and freedoms when their personal data is processed.
Wojciech Wiewiórowski (EDPS), was appointed by a
joint decision of the European Parliament and the Council on to serve a
five-year term, beginning on 6 December 2019.
Personal information or data: any information
relating to an identified or identifiable natural (living) person.
Examples include names, dates of birth, photographs, video footage,
email addresses and telephone numbers. Other details, such as IP
addresses and communications content - related to or provided by
end-users of communications services - are also considered as personal
data.
Privacy: the right of an individual to be left alone
and in control of information about his or herself. The right to
privacy or private life is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (Article 12), the European Convention of Human Rights
(Article 8) and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 7).
The Charter also contains an explicit right to the protection of
personal data (Article 8).
Processing of personal data: According to Article
4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 679/2016, processing of personal data refers
to “any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal
data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means,
such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage,
adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by
transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or
combination, restriction, erasure or destruction." See the glossary on the EDPS website.
The powers of the EDPS are clearly outlined in Article 58 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.
EDPS