Data Protection Day: Are Europeans really protected?

European Data Protection Day on 28 January commemorates the signing of the first pan-European data protection framework (Convention108) in 1981. Today, 42 years later, the GDPR is seen as the central law in European data protection and is meant to enable citizens to exercise their fundamental right to privacy. Initially hailed - and feared - as an enforcement tool, the GDPR is on the verge of suffering the same fate as its predecessors by simply being ignored. Overview of our open cases GDPR enforcement only in theory. The GDPR aims to give all users in Europe control over their personal data. Everyone has the right to find out what data a company has on them, how it is processed, and the right to stop unlawful processing. In practice, however, users have been harassed primarily with cookie-banners and pop-ups that leave no choice but to say "yes". These Europeans who have tried to exercise their right to data protection have often been bitterly disappointed. noyb regularly receives me