Developing The Personal Data Protection In The European Union: A Consumer-Oriented Approach The Romanian Experience

Abstract

Protection of personal data represents a relatively recent concern for all the entities consumers, organizations and public institutions involved in the development of the direct marketing industry and the overall Romanian market. Noteworthy growth of the direct marketing campaigns, increase in the consumer demands and expectations and the background provided by the countrys adhesion to the European Union, have determined a strong necessity to build up a legal framework for protection of the personal data. Important steps have been made when laws no. 677 (on the protection of the personal data in terms of their processing and free circulation - 2001), no. 506 (on the processing of personal data and protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector - 2004) and no. 102 (regarding the setting up, organization and functioning of the National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing - 2005) have been issued. Adoption of the Directive no. 95/46/EC has connected Romanian and European Union legal framework of the personal data protection. Enforcement of the existing legal background has revealed several problems that have affected activities conducted mainly by the direct marketing and marketing research companies. Relatively unclear definition of the content of personal data to be protected appeared to be one of the most important. From this point, at least the following questions should be answered:what is the specific meaning of the personal data? What data is personal and must be protected through dedicated laws and regulations?are public initiatives best ways and public institutions sole entities to handle the development of an effective legal background for the personal data protection?how important is the voice of the consumers in the process of development of a regulatory environment in this area? Should those to be protected represent the main source of initiating and building the related legal framework?An exploratory survey on a sample including 96 Romanian urban consumers aged 18 to 45 has been conducted aiming to provide information on the: importance of the data protection for the consumers, main characteristics of the data protection legal environment (area of protection, public-private, respectively national-international relationships in terms of the data protection, need for national or international laws and regulations), content of the personal data to be protected by a more precisely defined object of the law, consumer preferences regarding the opt-in and opt-out mechanisms, knowledge associated to the legal rights of consumers related to the personal data protection as they are granted through the existing law, major risks associated with the absence or improper personal data protection mechanisms, consumers exposure to the personal communication media, preferences for personal sources of information and perceived importance of personalization as potential factors to be considered for the development of the personal data protection legal framework, opportunity to develop and implement a Robinson list.Results of the survey may serve as a starting point for a future research conducted at the level of a national representative sample and the Romanian experience may be considered for the upcoming effort to develop a legal framework of the personal data protection in the European Union based on the consumers views, needs and expectations.