International Data Protection Day

Today, January 28, marks 35 years since the signing of the first international treaty on the protection of personal data, and at Tourism & Law we want to take this opportunity to make companies aware of the importance of complying with their obligations, and informing them of their rights in terms of data protection and privacy. As is well known, the General Data Protection Regulation has come to give users more power over their data, and to impose obligations and inform companies on how to treat and protect personal data. In relation to users, they have the right to know what their data is being processed for, and of course, who has it in their possession, for what purpose, to whom it can be transferred, until when they will have it and who are the recipients. In addition, users have the right to modify their data, to object to a certain processing, to limit the processing of their data, to request the portability of their data and to also request their deletion. The rights of users are closely linked to the obligations that entities or bodies must acquire, since they will be the ones who must manage the requests and exercises of user rights. However, the obligations of entities or organizations do not end here, and in this regard, we are going to indicate some of the measures that Tourism & Law recommends that companies implement:

• Keep systems up to date and free of viruses and vulnerabilities
• Make backup copies
• Store data correctly and in certain cases encrypted.
• Raise awareness among employees so that they make the correct use or treatment of corporate systems and personal data.
• Use secure networks for communications with customers, using encryption when the information exchanged is especially sensitive.
• Conduct annual risk analyses.

For all these reasons and in commemoration of the anniversary of the signing of Convention 108, at Tourism & Law, we not only want to raise awareness, but we want to offer our clients the security they need, and that through our legal services we can provide them.

Rosario Saldarriga (T&L Attorney)