From November 4 to November 6, 2009 Spanish capital Madrid hosted the 31st International Conference on Data Protection under the title “Privacy: Today is Tomorrow”. The forum was held at the Congress Hall in Madrid under the chairmanship of Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess of Asturias – Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia. The Bulgarian Commission for Personal Data Protection was represented by Tsvetelin Sofroniev – Secretary of CPDP and Desislava Toshkova – Director of Directorate “Legal and international affairs”.
Throughout the three days of the 31st International Conference of data Protection and privacy there will be an appraisal of some of the issues that are currently being discussed not only by the guarantors of privacy and data protection but by society at large. Thus one of the main issues that will be thoroughly analysed is the relentless development of information technology, especially the internet, an essential tool in present-day society which requires a great deal of reflection in light of the proliferation of new services, for instance social networks, due to their impact in terms of data protection and privacy.
The conference ended with the adoption of the Resolution from Madrid “International standards on the Protection of Personal Data and Privacy" and Statement and need for an international framework in support to the protection of personal data and privacy adopted at a closed session of the authorities for personal data protection. The standards define a set of principles and rules to ensure the effective protection of privacy on an international scale and to facilitate the international flow of personal data.
The standards, adopted in the final document, are relating to the processing of personal data in both the private and public sector, but not to personal data processed by individuals. The States hereto may supplement these standards with additional measures to ensure better protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data.
