The Personal Data Protection Office at the 31st Pol'and'Rock Festival
On Saturday, August 2, the 31st Pol'and'Rock Festival. According to estimates, the event, which lasted four days, was visited by 750,000 people, which is probably a record for this event. Over forty stars from Poland and abroad performed on the music stage. As every year, meetings, debates and panels devoted to social issues and strengthening civil society also gathered a large audience. The Personal Data Protection Office was one of the participants of discussions and meetings organised as part of the Academy of Fine Arts.
This year's zone of the Academy of Fine Arts, which has been the venue of the most important meetings and debates of the festival for almost twenty years, hosted over 120 organisations. Among them was also the Personal Data Protection Office, which since Wednesday has been providing consultations and legal advice on the protection of personal data and the right to privacy. In the Personal Data Protection Office’s tent, you could also solve crosswords, play charades or take part in role-plays. Everything on the subject of personal data protection with a focus on education. The zone was hosted by employees of the Office, experts associated with the Personal Data Protection Office and members of the Social Team of Experts to the President to the Personal Data Protection Office.
On the following days of the festival, thematic panels and discussions of the Personal Data Protection Office, devoted to the issues of personal data protection in the context of civil rights and current social problems, attracted great interest. Among them, there were also issues related to the GDPR, including the right to be forgotten or the right to privacy protection. There were also issues related to the Internet, such as digital hygiene, deepfakes, risks related to web applications. Experts associated with the Personal Data Protection Office talked about the digital footprint left by users of social networking sites. They also educated on the issue of ID card data security.
An important topic discussed in the Personal Data Protection Office’s zone were children's rights in the perspective of their presence on the Internet – the following topics were discussed, inter alia, the safety of using social networking sites, the protection of young people's data, manipulation on the Internet and the modification of images of minors in photographs. The meetings devoted to these issues were attended by Konrad Ciesiołkiewicz from the State Commission for Counteracting the Sexual Abuse of Minors under 15 years of age. Between the events, quizzes, games and educational scenes were held to familiarise participants with the topics that the Personal Data Protection Office deals with on a daily basis.
The programme also included an interview with the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, during which the participants had the opportunity to ask questions. Most of them concerned the Office’s plans. An important point of the festival activity of the Personal Data Protection Office was also a conversation between the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, Mirosław Wróblewski, and the Chairman of the Social Team of Experts to the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, Mirosław Gumularz, entitled "Data as currency. Data protection today and tomorrow".
"The participation of the Personal Data Protection Office in Pol'and'Rock is, like the The Polish SA on tour across Poland, it is an opportunity to meet people. The participants of the festival are largely people who do not deal with the protection of personal data on a daily basis. Listening to their perceptions and needs is very important to us. Data protection is a topic for everyone, and we want to reach the widest possible audience with it. Thanks to the fact that the Office is closer to the people, it is easier for us to adjust our activities and respond to the needs of the society" – summed up the participation in the festival the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, Mirosław Wróblewski.
This year, the Academy of Fine Arts zone was visited by institutions such as the Ministry of Digital Affairs, NASK – National Research Institute (inter alia experts from CERT Polska), the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, the National Chamber of Legal Advisers, the National Freedom Institute – Centre for Civil Society Development, the Financial Ombudsman, and the State Labour Inspection.
During the 31st The Pol'and'Rock Festival zone of the Academy of Fine Arts was very popular among festival-goers and throughout its operation it was possible to take part in numerous meetings. For four days (every day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.), the employees of the Office held hundreds of meetings and conversations with the participants of the event.