Despite the problems that the European Union has; it has made several beneficial legislative moves. One of them is the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation. It is a regulation that we see in action every day, through the cookies that we are asked to accept when entering a website for the first time. However, a blatant breach of this directive brings it again at the forefront.

Ms. Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou revealed a new dark side of this government by procuring the email list. Of course, the issue is not what she got but where she got it from. Because selling email lists (even in the days of GDPR) is something that does happen in the private sector. But it's unheard of in the public sector. When the state "sells" our data, then we have a real problem. An example will better illustrate my point.

Let's say that the data leak is not from the Ministry of Interior but from the Ministry of Health. Through the NHS database, contact details of people with chronic diseases or serious illnesses are found. These people are in a vulnerable position and are therefore the perfect clients for a private clinic offering new treatments. Are they just emails/phone numbers? Or are they much more than that? Surely this is an extreme example but the point remains: citizens' data are being sold or given away within a ministry.

So we are being made aware of something that is frightening: our data are not safe, not even from our own state. However, an unethical person can always happen to be in a high position and there is always a risk. But why is a person able to get data so easily? Why are the necessary safeguards not in place? If we take the relatively unlikely case that the problem does not extend higher up in the political ladder, it is not a question of conspiracy but of the absence of these safeguards.

That fact that our data is at risk is something that should not surprise us. The reason is that the government has showed us what its opinoion regarding the right to privacy much earlier in its term, with the surveillance scandal. Our personal data and our privacy are being sacrificed at the altar of corporate and political interests by the officials of this government. However, despite the justified scaremongering, the scandal of our MEP also teaches us something positive: Collective action by citizens (in this case the expatriates who complained about the emails) can produce results and solve problems. So speak up, ladies and gentlemen! (because we know they are listening in).

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  • Georgios Terzopoulos created politiquill.gr to share his opinion pieces and thoughts with the world. He is interested in political marketing and communication.

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