Strasbourg 2008: when privacy became a global issue

In October 2008, while many still thought the Internet er... an international framework, because data no longer knew any borders.

A meeting with a sense of urgency

The event brought together representatives from more than 30 countries and 150 public and private institutions, with the participation of the then director of the Catalan Data Protection Authority, Esther Mitjans. The general feeling was that much stronger international cooperation was needed. The reason? Personal data was circulating faster and faster thanks to globalization and new technologies, and national laws were falling behind.

One of the most repeated messages was: “data protection cannot depend solely on local regulations”. If someone publishes your information on the other side of the planet, it's of little use if your city or your state has good laws.

Hot topics: minors and sensitive data

The conference also put on the table the protection of minors, a particularly vulnerable group because they are often unaware of the risks of exposing personal data. More supervision was called for and, above all, more education in this area: it is not enough to set rules; young people need to be taught how to protect their privacy.

Another hot topic was sensitive data: health, sexual orientation, religious beliefs… All this information required, and still requires, particularly careful handling. The risk of discrimination or misuse was (and remains) very high.

Europe wanted to lead the debate

The Strasbourg conference was also a way to show that Europe wanted to lead the global conversation about privacy. At that time, the GDPR did not yet exist, but the need for a stronger and internationally accepted standard was already evident. The 2005 Montreux Declaration, another milestone in cooperation between countries, was even recalled as a basis for moving forward.

The idea was clear: if countries did not join forces, companies and governments that do not respect privacy would end up setting the rules of the game.

Transparency and trust

In the end, everything came down to this: people had the right to know how their data was being used and to trust that it was protected. Without trust, the digital system would not work. That is why Strasbourg 2008 stressed the need for more independent oversight and more citizen control.