Rolando Herrera/ Reform Agency
Monday, January 23, 2023 | 12:51
CDMX.- Countries must legislate to protect the personal data of their citizens and prevent big technology companies from misusing it or using it without the consent of the owners, said Gautier Mignot, Ambassador of the European Union in Mexico.
When participating in the forum “The protection of personal data in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, Mignot explained that in the digital age, personal data has become a commodity that provokes the greed of companies and autocratic regimes.
“The data is what gold was before the Industrial Revolution or oil in the last century, since these same resources have a very ambivalent role, they generate the greed of some who want to appropriate them to the detriment of others and, in particular , from their rightful owners, but at the same time they can play an extraordinarily positive role, in this case so that the data, through what they call in English big data and open data, help us to know and face the challenges of the present. which are those of sustainable development,” he said.
Mignot said that Europe has worked on the protection of personal data for several years with the establishment of different laws that protect citizens from large technology companies.
“The European Union has been a pioneer with the adoption of the general data protection regulation in 2016 and also last year with the adoption of two new laws, the law on digital services and the law on digital markets, all these texts seek protect individuals against large players, large companies, large platforms, which have economic power, a market power never seen before in the history of capitalism,” he said.
“It is important that all the big economies and the big democracies of the world adopt and reinforce with their own rules, and that a regulatory dialogue in this regard and cooperation is established.”
Blanca Lilia Ibarra, president of the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI), stated that in order to assess compliance with the commitments assumed by Mexico with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, reliable data is required and solid.
In this sense, he said, the INAI is working so that the authorities, in compliance with the legislation on the matter, comply with the generation and dissemination of information that allows knowing the progress of the country with this international commitment.
“The organizations that guarantee the right to know and the protection of personal data are protagonists of this agenda because the UN recognizes that, and I quote: ‘quality, accessible, timely, disaggregated and reliable data will be necessary to measure progress and to ensure that no one is left behind,'” said
