The 40th Plenary Meeting of the Committee of the Convention 108 for the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data was held remotely, due to Covid-19 global pandemic, on 18 – 20 November 2020. In the capacity of member to the Committee, the Office of Information and Data Protection Commissioner submitted its annual report on the activities in the field of personal data protection covering the period 2019 – 2020.
This plenary meeting gathered over 150 participants across all the regions of the world to discuss various topics relating to data protection, important draft documents and experts’ presentations. The Committee adopted the “Guidelines on Children’s Data Protection in an Education Setting”, whereas the following documents will be adopted by written procedure: “Profiling and Convention 108+”, Report on the developments after the adoption of Recommendation (2010)13 on Profiling”, Report on “Digital Identity”, Report on “Processing of personal data by and for political campaigns: implementation of the modernized Convention 108”.
A report on the 41st International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, which was organized by the Albanian Information and Data Protection Commissioner’s Office on 21-24 October 2019 in Tirana, was introduced by the representative of the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA). Moreover, the elections of the Bureau of the Committee were held, where Ms. Alessandra Pierucci was re-elected chair.
The Convention 108 was adopted in 1981 and it has established a Consultative Committee which is responsible for interpreting the provisions of the Convention and ensures to facilitate the implementation thereof. An amending protocol was adopted on 18 May 2018, which is currently signed by 33 countries and ratified by 9 countries. Albania is in the process of ratification of this important Convention.