One of the facts of modern life is that we are increasingly sharing more information about ourselves. Whether registering a trade license or signing up to use a plan with a phone company, you’ll find that you have to give the relevant authorities information about yourself, such as your name, permanent address, birth date and (if you have one) your Czech National Identification Number. But how much of that information is safe? Who can get their hands on it? And what can you do about it when they do? Being part of the European Union means that the protection of personal data in the Czech Republic is governed by both national laws and European guidelines.

We are living in a digital, connected world. For this reason, when we talk about protecting our data we do not only think about keeping our letters private or avoiding the neighbours from knowing our political or religious beliefs.

Data protection laws in all countries are a measure to protect the individual’s personal data, by controlling how it is used by entities who may have them. Even if there might be differences between countries depending on their laws, some basics are always considered sensitive information (religious background, race, information about children …).

Data protection is especially controlled all over the European Union due to the recent Data Protection Act, which applied on May 25, 2018. Anyway, in the following chapter we will have a deeper vision on how it is conceived in each country.