The online awareness event for the online platform of data protection professionals under the project “Αware by default: promoting awareness of critical social and professional groups – byDefault” was successfully held on 4 October 2023. It is noted that the project is 90% funded by the European Union’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) programme and has a duration of 2 years (August 2022 – August 2024). It is coordinated by the Data Protection Authority and its implementation is carried out jointly with the University of Piraeus and the Greek IT company “ABOVO”.
In this morning event the pilot version of the collaboration and exchange platform of data protection professionals https://collab.dpa.gr/ was presented and also scenarios for its use.
The President of the Hellenic DPA, Konstantinos Menoudakos, gave a welcome speech in which he stressed that "with this project the Authority adds another aspect to its actions, since it strives to establish a new relationship with data protection professionals, a relationship of two-way exchange of knowledge and practices, from which we believe that we will all benefit. ByDefault is part of the Authority’s collective and systematic effort towards more effective compliance with legislation”.
Then the Director of the Authority Dr. Vasilis Zorkadis analysed the objectives and pillars of the project while Dr. George Rousopoulos, ICT auditor of the Authority, explained the activities for the development of the platform and then together with ICT auditor Leonidas Roussos made a live tour of the basic functionalities. Professor and member of the Authority Konstantinos Lambrinoudakis described the activities to raise awareness of children and young people in relation to data protection, while Dr. Elena Maragou, legal auditor of the Authority and Haris Simeonidou, also a legal auditor, explained afterwards the coordination of the thematic modules and how the platform will be used. In the end a free discussion took place with the audience where various issues related to the platform were clarified and questions were answered by the speakers.
In the afternoon of the same day, the second awareness event for teachers was held at the University of Piraeus. The President of the Hellenic DPA gave a welcome address and noted among other things "The Authority, under the GDPR, also has the task of promoting and raising public awareness and understanding of the risks, rules, safeguards and rights related to processing, and special attention is given to activities aimed at children. The Authority is constantly striving to inform about the protection of personal data and to provide appropriate tools to facilitate compliance with the relevant legislation”.
At the event, Professor Konstantinos Lambrinoudakis and Professor Simos Retalis (Department of Digital Systems of the University of Piraeus) presented the basic principles of personal data protection, as well as the training program to be integrated into the Skills Laboratories of the Institute of Educational Policy, as well as the training and vocational training programme for teachers that will be performed through the Centre for Training and Lifelong Learning of the University of Piraeus.
Finally, there was a discussion with the teachers present on specific risk scenarios concerning the personal data of the students. The aim was to exchange views on how to raise awareness and train students to address and manage these risks.
Communications Department
