The right to privacy and the protection of personal data: Convention 108 as a universal and timeless standard for policymakers in Europe and beyond

It is widely recognised that the first binding legal act regarding the protection of personal data of an international nature is Convention 108, adopted on 28 January 1981. By virtue of the Convention, the Parties are required to apply in their domestic legal order the principles introduced by the Council of Europe to ensure guarantees for the fundamental human rights of all individuals with regard to the processing of personal data. This paper refers to Convention 108 as the foundation for European and international data protection laws in a number of European countries. It has influenced policies and legislation far beyond Europe’s borders. However, due to the development of ICT tools that permit establishing new data-driven business models based on data-processing systems, Convention 108 has become subject to modernisation. At the same time, intensive negotiations were conducted in the EU concerning a new data-protection package to reform the data-protection system, and many other countries around the world have introduced provisions related to the processing of personal data. This paper analyses the impact of the standards set out in Convention 108 on the decision-making process and its global dimension.