Cape Verdean President José María Neves on Tuesday asked for solutions to maximize the potential of technology and innovation, but “under no circumstances” undermine the protection of personal data and fundamental rights.
“Therefore, it is important to find solutions to maximize the socio-economic potential of ICT. [tecnologias da informação e comunicação]make full use of the opportunities offered by the development of technological solutions and the increase of innovative potential in the social sphere, without under any circumstances violating the protection of personal data and, therefore, the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic to privacy and intimacy, which materialize the dignity of the human person” , said José Maria Neves.
Speaking in the city of Praia at a conference organized by the National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD), the head of state of Cape Verde noted that in recent decades there has been a “concentrated revolution” in communication and information technologies, which has changed its own form of human socialization.
“There is a new world, a new society,” said the chief justice of Cape Verde, for whom the “dizzying progress” of forms of communication has made it possible to collect data, often without the permission of the owner.
The fact, he continued, makes it possible to track profiles that facilitate the offering of a wide variety of products and services, properly tailored to the profile in question, exposing the fragility of privacy protection mechanisms.
“Data collection was also used for party-political purposes and for conditioning people during elections,” the President of the Republic also noted.
José María Neves noted that the National Data Protection Commission, as the national authority for the control of personal data, is attentive to the challenges and opportunities that the information society creates, such as awareness campaigns.
For the head of state, the opportunities of the information society, namely in the social and economic spheres, “must not be missed.”
“The tools for access to information, education, work and public discussion offered by information and communication technologies are essential for developing countries like ours,” he stressed.
“Processing of personal data for social purposes” is the theme of the conference dedicated to the 8th anniversary of the CNPD, the purpose of which is to raise awareness and inform about the risks, rules and conditions of processing (conditions of legality, data quality, data transfer, storage time and security measures), guarantees and rights related to the processing of data for social purposes.
This Tuesday event brings together data processors (public and private entities, civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations), subcontractors and data subjects.
Protection of personal data and privacy of private and family life, grounds for the lawfulness of the processing of personal data for social purposes and the processing of personal data by institutions such as the Cadastro Social Único system, public organizations, the Cape Verdean Red Cross and microcredit organizations and best practices for the processing of personal data – conference topics.
The CNPD, established in 2013, is an independent administrative unit based in Praia that works alongside the National Assembly and is granted administrative, financial and property autonomy.