Data Protection Day

Data Protection Day (known outside Europe as Data Privacy Day) is an international event that occurs every January 28th.

The purpose of Data Protection Day is to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices. It is currently observed in 47 European countries as well as the United States, Canada, India.

The day was initiated by the Council of Europe:

• People´s personal data are being processed every second - at work, in their relations with public authorities, in the health field, when they buy goods or services, travel or surf the Internet;
• Individuals are generally unfamiliar with the risks related to the protection of their personal data and of their rights in this respect. They are seldom aware of what they can do if they consider that their rights have been breached, or of the role of national data protection agencies;
• It is the date on which the Council of Europe's data protection convention, known as "Convention 108", was opened to signature. Data Protection Day is now celebrated globally and is called Privacy Day outside Europe;
• It was first held in 2007 as the European Data Protection Day.

It's a good occasion for those of you who are not ready, that the GDPR is coming to inforcement in 4 months time, on May 25th.