It was already the third time that the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection joined the celebrations of the European Data Protection Day, established by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to take place on 28 January. In 2009, the leitmotif of the event was the protection of personal data in the age of development of modern technologies.

At that time, the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection, Micha? Serzycki, paid special attention to widely understood threats to our privacy connected with the use of the Internet, but also to the security of children and youth on the Web and personal data protection of bank customers. These issues, and in particular the question of personal data security on the Internet, which currently requires urgent regulation, are relevant, as development of modern technologies enabling obtaining and combining many pieces of information about each of us creates serious threats to the right to privacy and personal data protection.

Celebration of the Data Protection Day

The Inspector General for Personal Data Protection warned against the above mentioned threats all Poles during the celebration of the 3rd Data Protection Day. On this occasion, special meetings were also organised, both in the country and in Brussels.

Schedule of events in 2009

Although the very Data Protection Day is scheduled for 28 January, its celebration in 2009 took place for the whole week between 26 January and 2 February.

The schedule of events looked as follows:

• 26 January – at 7 p.m., a meeting of the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection, Micha? Serzycki, with Members of the European Parliament as well as representatives of the European Commission and other Polish and European institutions was held at the seat of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the European Union in Brussels. During the meeting the floor was taken by: Mr Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor, His Excellency the Reverend Prof. Piotr Mazurkiewicz, Secretary General of the Commission of Episcopates of the European Community, Mr Francisco Fonseca Morillo, Director, Civil Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, European Commission, and Mr Micha? Serzycki, the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection.
• 27 January – at the meeting with the Polish Club at the seat of the European Parliament in Brussels the Inspector General presented a speech on the security of personal data on the Internet, On 28 January two events were organised:

  Open Day in the Bureau of the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection - between 10.00 a.m. and 3 p.m. on the ground floor at the seat of the Bureau (2 Stawki Str., Warsaw), there were information stalls where employees of the Bureau were providing information on personal data protection and work of the Bureau to the interested persons; at that time, informational and promotional materials were distributed as well; special talks, accompanied by presentation of films on threats connected with the use of the Internet, were also organised for children; moreover, the Open Day gave an opportunity to organise knowledge competitions as regards safe use of the Internet and the participants proving to be best informed on these issues received attractive prizes,Conference with the Polish Bank Association entitled „Best practice of personal data processing in banks – from the perspective of practitioners”, during which the agreement on joint action of the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection and the Polish Bank Association for the benefit of raising standards of personal data protection and the right to privacy in the banking activity was concluded.

• 2 February – a meeting of the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection, Micha? Serzycki, with entrepreneurs being members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland devoted to the security of personal data on the Internet took place.

Information in the media

The celebration of the 3rd Data Protection Day was also accompanied by a broad media campaign, with the participation of many journalists from newspapers, portals, television and radio. Thanks to this the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection, Micha? Serzycki, gave many interviews in which he explained how to protect our personal data.

Acknowledgements
We would like to express our sincerest thanks to co-organisers and participants of all the meetings and competitions organised on the occasion of the 3rd Data Protection Day, as well as to journalists, who publicised this event and its main issues.

...more in Polish