A new Data Protection Act for Spain
The Spanish Organic Law 3/2018 for the Protection of Personal Data (and for the granting of digital rights) was published yesterday in the Spanish Official Gazzette, more than 6 months after the moment the General Data Protection Regulation started to be applicable. This new Data Protection Act supersedes the former Spanish data protection legislation and is enforceable as of today.
Our "GDPR Tracker" already reflected the main specificities of this Act compared to the General Data Protection Regulation (e.g. the age underage individuals need to have to grant consent for the processing of their data, the possibility to offer information by means of a layered system, the specific circumstances in which a data protection officer needs to be appointed, etc.)
Notwithstanding the abovementioned, this new rule recognises a set of "digital rights" (or rights in the context of the Internet) to every individual, starting with the net neutrality right (or the right to be granted with Internet access without being discriminated for technical and/or economic reasons) and ending with the right to a digital testament (meaning the right of every individual related to a deceased person to access to the contents generated by the latter).
This set of digital rights includes certain work-related rights; further to the right to digital disconnection, workers are granted a reinforced right to privacy when employers intend to use CCTV, audio recording and geolocation systems. Although these are not absolute rights, employers will need to use these systems with caution in order to avoid unlawful processing activities.
As stated in the rule, most of these rights are just a reflection, in the field of the Internet, of the rights granted to any Spanish citizen by means of the Spanish Constitution.
