My GDPR journey, Part 2

Hi everyone, it's me, Dila again! In this two-series blog post I wanted to open up my GDPR journey which was made in August 2016. I feel very lucky to be part of the GDPR journey by visiting seven beautiful countries in Europe. Since there are many experiences that I would like to share, I divided the blog into 2 parts. Here is the second part of my GDPR journey where I introduce broad details of my trip about the countries that I visited. You can also read the first part of this blog series here

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It was a good start with Copenhagen. I had only a day to spend in the city. I had to be quick to find the adequate amount of people. It was challenging but thrilling. I thought of it as a difficult task. However, after few interviews, I found helpful people and began feeling relaxed with the job. It was also very surprising that first two young people whom I made the interview not only had a full understanding about data privacy but also they were aware that the EU has numerous legislations about the data protection. The more people I interviewed in Copenhagen, the more I felt confident. I could even begin modifying the questions regarding to the type of person that was in front of me. Few hours later in the city, I managed to make seven interviews already. However, due to the surprising North, rain began to pour down from the sky, creating further obstacles. It started in Tivoli Park where I thought I might find many people and also the location was really fitting for the background. Naturally, some people turned me down because of the weather. However, I still found few people and even one person who was working in IT Company and had full knowledge about the digital identity. He had just started on reading about GDPR. Overall, for the first day, I got great answers from people of all age.

In Berlin, the weather continued to challenge me with a strong rain. However, I managed to go to nice spots with my friend’s help who is living in the city. The German city is full of people from all around the world. Due to that, very varied answers were given by them, which gave a different dimension to the entire video. I made interviews with the young generation and it seems that there are people who are really concerned about the privacy but also groups who do not seem to raise any real concern about the issues of data privacy. Overall, it seems that the young think that by only modifying Facebook privacy settings, it would be enough to protect the data. Naturally, it is a big step for protection but it needs a more careful control that mere Facebook settings cannot provide. It was great to make conversations to people to inform them about the new legislation – GDPR - that gives the control back to the people.

Mon amour Paris! I had two days that gave me chances for more interviews and shoot the beautiful landscapes. Surprisingly, I found many local people who were willing to make interviews even though they were shy to speak English at first. I also discovered that people began to gradually relax and answer with higher level of confidence. Especially, people seemed even more concerned about the data privacy in Paris. Some did not even own any social media accounts. On the other hand, certain people think that it is possibly safer that the companies have the data and information about people, due to the recent terror attacks.

In Southern countries, such as Barcelona, Venice, Lisbon and Budapest, people have a mindset that nowadays; there is no way to provide the privacy. Middle aged generations were even more concerned than the younger one. Therefore, they read carefully the policies before signing up. For the reason, they were surprised and happy to hear that there is going to be a new legislation to protect the users and thus, it will make them feel safer to put their data online. I was also very satisfied and happy to hear such great responses from people thanking me to bring up those topics, since they were not thinking these questions in their daily life. I believe that people might be more careful to put the data on the Internet about themselves after the interview. Primarily, I am thankful to Eficode to select me for such great project that gave so much experience and taught me on the trip.

In conclusion, not only do I share the information on GDPR with people but I also learnt a lot from people I interviewed, especially the ones who understood and knew about data privacy. I believe that all of the companies need to make sure that the law is changing to GDPR by increasing the awareness, giving the issue constant exposure. Possibly making it a responsibility for companies to highlight issue might not be a wrong direction.

Remember to check my video from the trip! You can watch it here.

Best wishes,
Dila