February 24, 2022, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and the State Inspector’s Service, with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia, held a closing event of the project "Promoting Personal Data Protection in Georgia".

Event participants were welcomed by the Executive Director of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information, Giorgi Kldiashvili, the State Inspector, Londa Toloraia, and the Deputy Ambassador of the Netherlands - Loes Lammerts. 

During the event the project activities and achievements were summarized, as well as the presentation of the publications prepared within the project was held. The speakers were Ketevan Kukava – IDFI’s Rule of Law and Human Rights Direction Head, who presented the Major Trends of Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as spoke about European standards for biometric data processing; Salome Chkhaidze – IDFI’s Lawyer / Researcher, who reviewed the issue of genetic data processing; Nata Akhaladze – IDFI’s Lawyer, she discussed the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice; the winners of the essay competition: Natia Meparishvili on the topic - Processing of Personal Data by Face Recognition Systems; Tamar Mekhrishvili - Modern Challenges of Data Security; Mariam Giorgadze - Processing of Personal Data by Face Recognition Systems; Also, Nikoloz Bregvadze - Personal Data Protection Expert, who presented the handbooks prepared by him -  Processing Biometric Data in Financial Sector and Processing Data in Electronic Communications Sector.

The project started on December 1, 2020 and it aimed to strengthen the protection of personal data in Georgia.

"Data processing is becoming more widespread in public and private sectors, and the development of technology potentially increases the risks of violating the right to privacy. That is why the aim of our project was to raise awareness of personal data protection standards, to encourage discussions on existing challenges, and to strengthen the capacity of the State Inspector’s Service.” - Noted Ketevan Kukava, IDFI’s Rule of Law and Human Rights Direction Head.

The following important activities were carried out within the scope of the project:

- The first Summer School on personal data protection was held;

- An essay competition for students was announced and a Collection of Essays was published;

- Trainings  were conducted for the personnel of the State Inspector’s Service;

- The Collection of European Court decisions, as well as the study “Processing of Biometric and Genetic Data - European Standards” has been published; 

- Thematic handbooks on data processing issues in separate sectors were prepared by an expert.