The annual meeting of data protection inspectorates of the Baltic States took place this year on August 28-29 in Tallinn.
At the meeting, heads of all institutions, gave an overview of the most important activities of the past year, stumbling blocks, and discussed the institutions' future plans.
The most important topics on the table were the exchange of best practices in cookie audit approaches for public and private websites, the investigation of personal data breaches. Also, best practices and experiences on collecting online and on-site checks (evidence, documents) were shared.
Since the Schengen evaluation will soon take place in Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania gave an overview of the Schengen evaluation that took place in their country and shared tips from their experience. The heads of the legal departments of the countries discussed the implementation of the Digital Services Act, the Data Management Act and the NIS 2 directive.
The head of Estonia, Pille Lehis summarizes the event as a very productive and necessary meeting which provides Baltic institutions with good practices and useful information exchange in a slightly more open atmosphere. She says that: "In an increasingly globalized world, it is especially important to have good friends and partners with whom to share common joys and worries. In addition to a similar history, the Baltic countries are also linked by the fact that, due to the small size of our countries, we are like one market for most companies, which is why it is especially important to share both practical and good experiences with each other and learn from each other's failures."
The Head of Latvia, Jekaterina Macuka seconded and agreed on the importance of the meeting. “Every year we are looking forward these meetings because they provide us with a valuable opportunity to gain new experiences and learn from one another. Data privacy is always changing, with new technologies affecting how we manage personal information. Our annual gatherings play an important role in educating our employees about the latest updates. Furthermore, meetings help us check how well we're doing and identify areas for improvement. We can see what's working, handle new problems, and change our plans if we need to. While each Baltic States inspectorate faces its own unique issues and daily difficulties, we all share a common goal- protection of data subjects“, says Macuka.
The Head of Lithuania, Dijana Šinkūnienė says that there is no doubt that the joint work of our Baltic countries and these meetings, which have become a tradition, are very successful. „I am glad that this year together with my team we were able to continue this tradition, where we shared our experience over the year, including: administrative innovations, priorities and findings of GDPR monitoring and supervision activities, experience in the supervision of information systems related to the Schengen area, preparation for the upcoming new legislation regarding enhanced data sharing and overall digitalization of the European society”.
See you next year - this time in Latvia!