The German Informatics Society (GI) has welcomed the new basic data protection regulation as a milestone in the harmonisation of European data protection and a clear signal against data collection mania and profiling.
GI President, Professor Dr Hannes Federrath, said the new regulations are a clear rejection of the data collection mania of Internet companies that believe that end user data can be used without their consent and for any purpose.
Professor Federrath said the the regulations also put a stop to so-called profiling, ie. the creation of user profiles based on automatically collected personal data. He called this a positive signal for all EU citizens and encouraged users to make use of their new and existing data protection rights.
“Among other things, companies were and are obliged to provide information about which personal data of end users they store for how long and for what purpose – and to delete them at any time at their request. We should not hesitate to make use of these rights and show IT companies that they must take the issue of data protection seriously.”
