ADC discusses personal data at Lower House
The Association for Civil Rights (ADC) executive director, Valeria Milanes, gave a presentation on data privacy at an event held on November 1 in the Auditorium of the Argentinian House of Representatives. The meeting, organized by the Communications Committee, was aimed at discussing Convention 108+ and the Data Protection Law update. “In terms of personal information, Argentina is inclined to put the individual first, which reveals a commitment to consider this type of protection a human right,” said Milanes.
The presentation was given on the panel “Personal data protection as a fundamental right and a facilitator for business: the Argentinian situation, where our executive director highlighted the importance of debating these issues in the international arena, as ADC does in different forums. She also remarked that this is an issue with different levels of complexity: “In addition to looking at general issues related to personal information, we had to analyze certain groups of data that, depending on the type, require a more comprehensive view, such as children and health. The multidimension nature of this issue cannot be disregarded.”
On the other hand, she referred to the unequal bargaining power between individuals and companies handling large amounts of personal data, and urged the latter to consider this relationship when dealing with this type of information. “A holder relates to their data not just in terms of being their owners. It is a bond that has to do with their dignity and identity,” she said.
The meeting was opened by lawmaker and Communications Committee chairperson Pablo Carro, and was closed by Beatriz de Anchorena, head of the Agency for Access to Public Information. The panel in which Milanes spoke also had the participation of Hernán Pérez Araujo, legislator and chair of the Constitutional Affairs Committee; Luis Lozano, from the DerCom Observatory; Diego Fernandez, chair of the Latin American Committee of ITechLaw Association; Pablo Segura, Data Privacy senior manager at Mercado Libre; and Marina Bericua, Public, External and Legal Affairs director at Microsoft Argentina.
The first panel, named “Data protection for integration in the global digital economy: Convention 108+,” included the participations of Karina Banfi, Congressmember and 1st vice-chair of the Communications and Informatics Committee; Tamar Kaldani, former First Vice-Chair of the Consultative Committee of the Council of Europe Convention 108; Gonzalo Sosa, Data Protection coordinator at the Regulatory and Control of Personal Data Unit of Uruguay; and Martin Pesce, Uruguayan representative to the Latin American Privacy Association.
