A round table on "Data Protection" was held on June 3, 2016 at the "Novotel" Hotel Sofia. Microsoft Bulgaria was the organizer of the event. The main speakers were representatives of the Commission for Personal Data Protection. The roundtable was opened by Mr. Ventsislav Karadjov, Chairman of CPDP and Mr. Remco Hendrix, lawyer of Microsoft Corporation.
Current issues related to the protection of personal data were the focus of the discussions – the recently adopted General Data Protection Regulation as well as the agreement for personal data transfer from the EU to the United States – “EU-U.S. Privacy Shield”.
The member of CPDP, Ms. Maria Mateva, presented the key aspects of the new agreement on data protection between EU and USA – "EU-U.S. Privacy Shield", and the draft adequacy decision of the Commission. Ms. Mateva focused on the positions of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party and the European Data Protection Supervisor and their assessment of the agreement and the Commission’s adequacy decision. She said that the expectations are that the European Commission will soon find a solution of the defined problems in order to ensure adequate protection offered by the agreement.
The member of CPDP, Mr. Tsanko Tsolov, introduced to the participants the mechanisms for use of Codes of conduct, certification and accreditation in the area of personal data protection.
Mr. Plamen Angelov, director of the Legal Affairs, International Cooperation, Planning and Training Directorate made a brief presentation on Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/ EC (General Data Protection Regulation). Mr. Angelov outlined the practical consequences of the adoption of the new EU rules on data protection, which will affect the national legislators, data protection authorities and data controllers.
On behalf of Microsoft, Mr. Remco Hendrix presented the Microsoft policies and measures for data protection in the cloud services, including ISO/IEC standard 27018, containing voluntary international set of rules for good practice in the processing of personal data by cloud services providers.
Representatives of the business were the main participants in the roundtable. They had the chance to evaluate the impact of data protection rules on theirs activities and receive "first hand" information about the changes and new requirements of the European legal framework which increases the significance of the protection of data against the back drop of developing digital economy and the globalizing world.
