Thanks to GDPR, you can find out who is handling your personal data

The General Data Protection Regulation has been presented as a bogeyman in many cases, but it has several advantages for "ordinary mortals". One is that you can now find out how any company is handling your data.

A new European Union regulation will allow you to better track how different institutions and companies handle the data you give them. This applies, for example, to various loyalty and discount schemes.

When do you have to give consent?

You too have most likely seen an increased flow of emails from various e-shops and other companies in the past few days. In the messages, their representatives have asked you to renew your consent to the processing of personal data.

"It is clear that consent must be given for business and marketing purposes, for example," explains Tomas Paták, spokesman for the Office for Personal Data Protection (OPPD), on the topic. According to the GDPR, this consent must be voluntary and comprehensible.

"It should be clearly visible what the data is actually provided for," adds Karel Bačkovský from the Security Department of the Ministry of the Interior.

When is consent unnecessary?

They both agree that in some situations the renewal of consent is superfluous. These are primarily situations where the provision of personal data is conditional on a contractual relationship - for example, when you open an account with a bank.

What to do if in doubt?

If you get the impression that you are giving your consent to the processing of personal data unnecessarily, or that your data is being handled to a different extent than you gave your consent, you can contact the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.

Or contact us. We have people in our team who specialise in personal data processing issues and who are ready to advise you too.