This January 28, on International Privacy Day, the annual Privacy Awards will take place. The Awards highlight initiatives that work on - and offer solutions to - privacy issues in practice. PONT | Data & Privacy spoke to juror Mabel de Vries about the purpose of the Dutch Privacy Awards and her personal privacy experience.
The Dutch Privacy Awards aim to recognize and encourage innovative and practical solutions in the field of privacy. According to Mabel de Vries, jury member of the Privacy Awards, the presentation is not necessarily about advanced technology, but also about awareness and application. De Vries: "Thoughtful privacy solutions are often associated with large companies, but the Awards show that they are accessible to anyone with a vision, regardless of scale or resources."
The nominees represent a diverse group: from large organizations to smaller initiatives with refreshing ideas. The goal is to make privacy more accessible and inspire people to take action. Innovations can be based on existing technologies that are improved with a creative approach. These Awards, according to De Vries, show that even smaller, well-thought-out initiatives can have a broad impact. "Anyone who has an idea and expertise or has a network that says, 'I'm going to work on a better solution myself, because doing nothing is no longer an option,' can come to us."
In addition, the Awards contribute to collaboration and knowledge sharing. The awards encourage people and organizations to contribute to better data protection and increasing privacy awareness. "In particular, the collaboration between organizations and diversity of small-scale ideas that do have broad applicability is what we actually want to encourage."
De Vries talks passionately about her years of involvement in privacy issues, including in her board position with the Dutch Data Protection Society (NGFG). She sees privacy not as an abstract legal concept, but as something that directly affects individuals. According to her, the right to be left alone is central, and that does not have to be complicated at all. For De Vries, privacy simply means, "The right to be left alone and to decide who gets access to me and my data."
Mabel de Vries draws her personal motivation from experiences in the professional field, where they are confronted time and again with the daily issues of data protection. De Vries advocates solutions that are understandable, accessible and practical, and emphasizes that suboptimal measures are still better than doing nothing. De Vries also understands the limited resources of smaller organizations, but she encourages them to still take action within their means.
