Argentina is now a party to the Convention 108+ of the Council of Europe
By Andrea Sanchez Vicentini, Josefina Piñeiro and Mariano Peruzzotti.
On April 17th, Argentina became the 23rd State to ratify the Convention 108+ of the Council of Europe. In a ceremony held during the opening of the Privacy 2023 Symposium devoted to the Treaty, the Director of the Agency of Access to Public Information of Argentina, Beatriz de Anchorena, deposited the ratification documents in the presence of Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Bjørn Berge (via Council of Europe).
The Deputy Secretary General voiced during the ceremony held in Venezia that “those countries that ratify Convention 108+ will no doubt have the higher level of data protection, recognized at the international level. They will be classified as ‘safe players’ in the ‘data market’”.
Convention 108+ aims at adapting the provisions of Convention 108, signed in 1981 in the city of Strasbourg, France, to the new challenges facing the protection of individuals with regard to the automated processing of personal data. It is a binding multilateral instrument that aims to protect the privacy of individuals against possible abuses in the treatment of their data.
The Protocol requires at least thirty-eight (38) ratifications for the Convention 108+ entry to force; until then its provisions will not be binding upon the parties.
The Argentine Congress approved Argentina’s accession to Convention 108+ on November 9. Among the new guidelines incorporated by this Protocol to Convention 108, to which Argentina acceded in 2019, the following stand out:
- The recognition of certain general principles on data processing, such as the principle of proportionality and data minimization;
- The definition of sensitive personal data is broadened. Genetic data and biometric data are included;
- Certain data breaches must be reported to the data protection authority;
- Recognition of new rights for data subjects;
- Greater involvement of the principle of accountability for data controllers;
- Update of the international data transfer regime;
- New attributions of the control authorities and extension of the legal bases for international cooperation.
The ratification of Convention 108+ represents a crucial milestone in the evolution of data protection in Argentina. Privacy issues are growing in a context of exponential technological transformations such as the development of the Artificial Intelligence and the identity recognition based on biometric data. Therefore, international trade needs clear rules to respond to the new challenges of the digital economy and cross-border data flows.
For further information please contact: asanchezvicentini@ojambf.com, jpineiro@ojambf.com and/or mperuzzotti@ojambf.com.
