The Personal Data Protection Service of Georgia is hosting the 2022 European Case Handling Workshop (ECHW).

The meeting is held in Tbilisi and more than 50 delegates of personal data protection authorities of 26 European countries are attending it. This year, the Workshop will address such significant topics as the stages of conducting inspections by data protection supervisory authorities; data protection in social media and domestic exceptions; international data transfers; personal data and artificial intelligence, etc.

President of the Personal Data Protection Service, Prof. Dr. Dr. Lela Janashvili opened the event and addressed the participants.

"In the era of growing technological progress, our mission is to raise the culture of personal data protection and protect the rights of data subjects. Data protection authorities play a crucial role in the implementation of the mentioned. Therefore, this once again highlights the importance of international interactive platforms, which help counterpart supervisory authorities to improve the strategic policy of their activities and implement the best standards to overcome common challenges”- stated Prof. Dr. Dr. Lela Janashvili.

The Chairman of the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, Mikheil Sarjveladze addressed the participants of the meeting.

The meeting was also attended by the representative of the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia - Anne Birgitte Hansen and the Head of the Delegation in Georgia of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

- Anne Montavon.

“European Case Handling Workshop” is an annual international forum to share the best practices in the field of privacy and personal data protection through the participation of data protection supervisory authorities from different countries. The Workshop has been held since 1999 and originates from the Helsinki Spring Conference, where the European data protection supervisory authorities agreed to hold the meeting with the participation of the data protection practitioners. The purpose of the meeting is to compare the procedures for complaints handling and facilitate dealing with cross-border complaints. ECHW is a kind of continuation of the “European Conference of Data Protection Supervisory Authorities” (the so-called “Spring Conference”), with a different format, particularly in the form of a working forum. It establishes a discussion platform for contemplating relevant practical issues and analyzing the challenges related to handling the cases by the supervisory bodies, as well as discussing ways to solve them.

 

Within the framework of the Workshop, various topics concerning the enforcement of data protection legislation will be discussed, as well as international standards of handling the cases by data protection supervisory bodies. The Workshop aims at creating an opportunity for practitioners working in the field of data protection to share their experiences with a focus on the following issues:

• Topics on which the most complaints are received;
• Issues that the office is currently dealing with; and
• Sectors that the office most often receives complaints about; or is likely to receive complaints about in the future.

The welcome reception of the participants of the 2022 workshop was held on November 17. The next two working days combine 6 main thematic panels. Within the framework of the first working day, the following topics will be discussed: Stages of the inspection, in particular, the planning of the inspection by the data protection authorities; Decision-making process; Methodology and structure of decision; Execution of decision.

More than 25 speakers from 16 countries, including the representatives of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), will share their experiences with the participants of the event.