On August 19, 2021, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information and the State Inspector’s Service held a joint event, where the authors of the 15 best essays identified during the student conference on personal data protection were awarded and granted certificates. 

Executive Director of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information - Giorgi Kldiashvili and the Deputy State Inspector – Sophio Jiadze addressed the participants with welcoming speeches, after which an award ceremony was held for the participants and certificates were handed to them.

In order to strengthen personal data protection, raise public awareness and promote students’ development, the competition was announced on May 14, 2021. The essays of the students participating in the competition covered a number of important topics related to personal data protection:

- Protection of personal data in labour relations; 

- Protection of personal data during video surveillance; 

- Processing of personal data by face recognition systems; 

- Processing of personal data by mobile applications; 

- Modern challenges of data security; 

- Processing of personal data by media outlets; 

- Protection of personal data and access to public information.

Dozens of students from different higher education institutions of Georgia took part in the competition. The State Inspector's Service and the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information selected the best 15 essay authors among them, whose works will be published in the form of an electronic journal. At the same time, the authors of the three best essays were named.

1st Place - Natia Meparishvili, a student of the Faculty of Law of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. The topic of her essay was the processing of personal data by facial recognition systems.

2nd Place - Tamar Mekhrishvili, a student of the Faculty of International Relations of the Free University, whose essay was about modern challenges of data security.

3rd Place - Mariam Giorgadze, a student of the Faculty of Law of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, the topic - processing of personal data by face recognition systems.

IDFI will continue to promote enhancing students' knowledge in the future by organizing similar events.

The competition for students was held within the framework of the project “Promoting Personal Data Protection in Georgia” with the financial support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia.