Data Protection Day: the challenge of keeping your personal information safe

It's something we all worry about: 76% of Europeans are concerned that their personal data is not safe in the hands of private companies. To call attention to the issue, European Data Protection Day is marked every year on 28 January. MEPs are currently working on beefing up European rules on data protection to ensure people's data are safe online. Find out the facts in our infographic.

Data protection has been an important issue following revelations last year about mass surveillance programmes such as that of the US. This was reason for the Parliament to launch an inquiry and for MEPs to call for the suspension of the EU-US Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) agreement.


EU governments are currently discussing the reform of EU data protection laws, aimed at bringing current legislation up to date. Changes could include the right to be forgotten, limits on profiling and requiring companies to get explicit consent from their customers for using their information.