The European Parliament elections will take place across the EU between 23-26 May 2019. In Ireland, we will vote on Friday, 24 May 2019. As part of our – European Movement Ireland – campaign to help raise awareness amongst the Irish public about the European elections, we will be following the story of 6 Irish voices on 6 different topics and discovering why their chosen topic matters in the upcoming European Parliament elections.
Meet Layla…
Profile
- Name: Layla
- County: Dublin
- Occupation: Scientist
- Age: 44
Why it’s important to engage in the upcoming elections on the issue of digital privacy
Digital privacy is an issue that not many generations before us have had to worry about. However, in today’s ever more online world the issue of digital privacy has become more and more prevalent.
As a mother of two teenagers who spend day and night glued to Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, digital privacy is an issue that often keeps me up at night! I worry about what information my kids share online and who has access to it, particularly after the Facebook scandal last year.
The European Union seems to have attempted to tackle this issue head on. It has always striven to protect all its citizens, and this includes online. Common rules to ensure a high standard of protection for all Europeans have been debated and legislated upon by the European Parliament. An example of such legislation came into effect in May 2018 with GDPR! The General Data Protection Rules (GDPR), addresses the issue of digital privacy and gives consumers more power over any personal information they choose to share online. Thanks to GDPR I now know that any of my personal details, or those of my children, shared online will be kept private.
I’ll be voting in the upcoming elections to ensure the European Parliament continues to protect all EU citizens in the digital world.