We need effective data protection in the application of rules relating to the digital world

On 28-29 April, Mirosław Wróblewski, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, participated in the conference "The future is data", organised by the Ministry of Digital Affairs in connection with the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The conference, which took place in Łódź, was supposed to become a forum for exchanging experiences on the most important issues and challenges related to data, including data protection in the European area.

Among the panel topics of the event were: the impact of new digital regulations on the creation of data spaces, data protection in the digital market, the assumptions of the Data Union Strategy.

The conference was addressed to government and local government administration, entrepreneurs, non-governmental organisations and scientists from EU countries.

On the first day, the subject matter of debates was introduced by Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, Minister of Digital Affairs, who stressed that "the quality of data is a key element of data development" and "data must be verified and true". He also pointed out: “Data is the gold of the 21st century. Humans have always produced data, and today their role is growing faster than ever. That is why we need to protect them well, manage them effectively and tell them wisely.” In this context, the Minister also mentioned the upcoming National Data Processing Centres, a network of three centres that will ensure state control over data and greater technological security.

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office Mirosław Wróblewski took part in the panel "Data protection in the digital market", in which the main themes turned out to be the issue of coordination of the activities of European supervisory authorities and institutions regarding the developing digital sector, as well as challenges related to the implementation of regulations, such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which in many respects overlap with the GDPR, but also require a new approach, for example in the relationship between data protection – consumer protection and competition protection, which in turn forces the cooperation of institutions dealing with these seemingly separate areas. The issue of ensuring compliance with data protection obligations and ensuring access to data in order to develop innovation on the European market also appeared among the issues raised.

As the President of the Personal Data Protection Office noted in his statement: "Data processing gives people the opportunity to grow, but data protection is part of this endeavour", so in this area, as in many other sectors of the economy, it may happen that access to goods/data is restricted for different groups of recipients, which tells us that data processing affects fundamental human rights. President Wróblewski pointed out that often the data owner and the consumer are the same people, so it is necessary to understand that the GDPR and competition and consumer protection laws should meet and have a consistent interpretation, and they cannot be seen as separate worlds. Therefore, we also need to ensure that the protection of personal data is effective when applying the new rules relating to the digital world.

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office also referred to the problem raised during the debate with the interpretation of the law relating to the protection of personal data, which becomes visible when we look at how many new regulations are being created on European soil (e.g. DMA, Digital Services Act, Artificial Intelligence Act). Practice shows that it is often more difficult to achieve coordination at European level, which may be due to the fact that, at national level, regulators cooperate in practice, even if they often do not have separate provisions for such cooperation – which, moreover, is a task for the national legislator. However, as stressed by the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, the principle of coordination should result in clear, strict interpretations of the law, because "strict interpretations are obviously better than the uncertainty of the legal environment".

During the discussion, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office also thanked the Ministry of Digital Affairs for effective cooperation in the work on the implementation of new European digital acts. He also referred to the signed agreement between the Personal Data Protection Office and the Government Legislation Centre. The aim of the agreement is to protect personal data at an early stage of legislative work.

Among the challenges for the future of the Office related to data protection, President Wróblewski mentioned, among others, the revolution that quantum technology will bring, and the issue of education of both controllers and citizens whose data should be protected, because, in the opinion of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, this type of education and awareness-raising of data subjects' rights is basically a "return to sources", needed despite seven years of application of the GDPR.