Our website uses cookies so we can analyse our site usage and give you the best experience. Click "Accept" if you’re happy with this, or click "More" for information about cookies on our site, how to opt out, and how to disable cookies altogether.
We respect your Do Not Track preference.
Nearly 40 years ago, the human rights body, the Council of Europe, introduced Convention 108. It required all signatory nations to take the necessary steps in their domestic legislation to ensure that fundamental human rights would be respected in the processing of personal information.
The convention, when it opened for signature in 1981, was the result of four years of negotiation. It laid down the principles for fair and lawful collection, automatic processing, and storage for specified legitimate purposes - and not for data use incompatible with these purposes.
The principles also addressed the quality of data: that it must be adequate, accurate, relevant and not excessive. Other principles addressed the confidentiality of sensitive data and the right of a data subject to access and challenge information. Many of these principles can be found in our information privacy principles.
Since then, the convention has served as the foundation for international data protection law in over 40 European countries. The convention was modernised in 2018 - the new Convention 108+ now covers public and private sectors; transparency obligations and the right of subjects to object to automatic processing.
Convention 108 has been described as the ‘grandmother’ of the benchmark setting GDPR and the “mother” of Directive 95 which is part of the basis of the GDPR. Since 2006, the establishment of Convention 108 is celebrated annually on 28 January as Data Protection Day.
While New Zealand is currently an observer, and not a signatory to Convention 108, our office is helping in this small way to mark Data Protection Day with this blog post.
While our main annual privacy event is Privacy Week (this year, Privacy Week in New Zealand is on 11-15 May), Data Protection Day helps start the year with a timely reminder of the importance of privacy and data protection, and how personal information in the hands of agencies has the power to affect the lives of individuals globally.
You can find out more about Data Protection Day and Convention 108 here.
Image credit: Convention 108+ via European Digital Rights
Back