Students visit EU Parliament and present their data protection app
Supervised by Professor Dr. Dirk Bruckmann and Professor Dr. jur. Dieter Kopetz, students of the Faculty of Communication and Environment visited the European Parliament in Brussels. They also met a representative of the European Data Protection Supervisor to presented their "EU Data Protection App". Other EU member states have already shown great interest.
During their visit to Brussels, students of the bachelor degree programmes Mobility and Logistics and International Business Administration had a lot of questions to ask MEP Jens Geier. They were interested, for example, in how the legal decisions of the European Parliament are implemented in the member states or how the processes are structured on account of the two seats in Brussels and Strasbourg. The agenda also included a lecture on the function and history of the EU Parliament and a tour of the "Parlamentarium" visitor centre. Students also met Thomas Zerdick, Head of the IT Policy Unit of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), who gave them interesting insights into the work of the EDPS and the potential threats to IT users. The students, who were accompanied by Professor Dr. Dirk Bruckmann, Professor of Transport Logistics, and Professor Dr. jur. Dieter Kopetz, Professor of IT Law, presented their "EU Data Protection App" and an accompanying poster.
The app, which they had designed as part of an interdisciplinary project supervised by Professor Kopetz, is intended to provide a kind of "first aid for data protection" for the citizens of the EU member states. It provides the contact details of all data protection authorities and the Data Protection Act. This enables people who are affected by data abuse to easily contact a supervisory authority. At the same time it provides the national data protection law and information on the most important court cases. The European data protection authorities can use the app as an address directory of their counterparts for cross-border cooperation in Europe.
The app is to be further developed and updated at least annually. The poster which contains a short description as well as an QR code for free download will be placed in the supervisory authority.
Thomas Zerdick, Head of the IT Policy Unit, was enthusiastic about the idea and the implementation of the app. By now, other representatives of the 28 EU member states have also expressed great interest.