European integration and data protection (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,0, Maastricht University (Faculty of Law), language: English, abstract: The paper at hand focuses on this current EU framework on data protection, mainly on the Data Protection Directive, and whether it can be considered as being successful. In order to comply with the course methodology the paper will first set out the rationale for the respective regime and how it has been realized in the EU. Then, the focus will rest on the successfulness of the current regime based on various criteria set out below. To give credit to future developments the European Commission¿s ambition to reform the current EU data protection regime will be referred to.

Communication in today¿s society has largely been influenced by the technical developments of the last decades. Most processes in our daily life are, at least partly, influenced or governed by the Internet or mobile telephony. This central role of electronic communication provides a multitude of
advantages, but also entails dangers which often cannot be overseen or which are not even known to the majority of the public. Besides the potential misuse of personal data by undertakings there is also the increasing risk of an unjustified analysis of said data by law enforcement agencies and
intelligence services. It is well established that over the past years both the European and the national legislators are
facing the challenge to balance both the public interest of security and the undertakings¿ interest to capitalize private data against the protection of privacy and personal data.

Evidence suggests that there has been a change in the perception of the significance of privacy in the population leading to more and more citizens being concerned with the protection of their personal data. According to a Eurobarometer conducted in 2008 around 64 percent of European citizens are worried about the way in which companies and organizations dealt with their personal data. Therefore, it is appealing to analyze if a balance has been realized with respect to data protection in the EU.