It is easy to forget that data protection has its roots in Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Despite the tendency among all involved in data protection to rely on the Data Protection Act 1998 or the EU’s Data Protection Directive, the recommendations and actions of the Council of Europe continue to matter.
It is therefore worth noting that the Council of Europe’s Consultative Committee of the Convention 108 on Data Protection published on 1 October “Draft Recommendation on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data in the Framework of Profiling.” The Draft Recommendation can be viewed at http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/data_protection/events/t-pd_and_t-pd-bur_meetings/2T-PD-BUR_2009_02rev4_en.pdf
The Council of Europe is now soliciting comments on the draft, which should be submitted by the end of October. Comments should be sent to Kateryna Gayevska of the Council of Europe Secretariat at Kateryna.GAYEVSKA@coe.int.
