It hasn’t been long since Mark Zuckerberg had to appear before congress to answer a tone of questions revolving around data privacy. The now well known Cambridge Analytical scandal was the reason that has led to Mark’s questioning from the US congress.

The appearance of Facebook’s CEO in front of the congress was live-streamed. Many people watched as Mark answered successfully, most of the times, questions coming from people that clearly didn’t have a strong connection with modern technology and social media. At the end of the day, the questioning turned into an apology session where Mark “promised” that Facebook would do better in the future.

Just like that and when everyone thought Facebook’s troubles were over for now, Mark Zuckerberg has to apologize once again, this time to the European Parliament.

Facebook’s CEO has to convince the europeans, that his social media platform is going to respect all data privacy rules that were recently established with GDPR. If you’re interested in watching that again, you are in luck. The European Parliament is going to be live-streaming the meeting through its’ official website at from 6:15PM to 7:30PM CET.

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Data privacy is one of the most sensitive topics in the digital world.

Have you ever wondered why you “magically” get personalized ads only for the things you like? Are you aware that your personal data are being shared across a bunch of thirsty advertising giants? Do you want to share that information? Did you consent to share this information at all? Have you heard of the GDPR regulations?

What is GDPR?

Let’s be honest. If you are a digital marketing person or you just own a company, you’re definitely panicking about the General Data Protection Regulation, also known as GDPR. This regulation comes to fortify the jungle of data we used to live in since the last decades and protect people from a bunch of risks about getting their personal data compromised.
GDPR is not only for the “specialists” though. It is something that should concern us all to the personal level. These regulations give the end-user a better control and transparency of how their data is shared and used by advertising agents (companies or services).

People have no earthly idea what they are signing up for -Joint commerce and Judiciary Committee SH-2016

How valuable is that data?
Nowadays, data can be declared as “the new black gold” of our era. Especially for digital marketers and big companies in which a large amount of their growth and revenue depends basically on several advertising services they provide and/or apply to their end-users.
Social Media companies, such as Facebook, rely on personalized advertising. So, why is Facebook free and how do they get money? It’s easy. You are the product! Many social companies; and not only – are using your data to provide you with targeted ads, or even sell that data with an explicit or implicit way in order to somehow help the companies that want to reach you or other clients like you.

The Story behind
GDPR has come a long way. In 2012 the European Commission proposed that it was time to update the data protection regulations that were initially set back in 1995. Following a handful of discussions , in the upcoming years, GDPR was set in motion in 2016. Companies and businesses now had a two year “post-adoption grace period”. That leads us to the deadline of March 25th 2018 . After that date all companies and businesses (operating in EU or interacting with any EU citizen) should have already be operating under the GDPR standards. For those that don’t comply with the GDPR, the eugdpr.org mentions that : “Organizations can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover for breaching GDPR or €20 Million.” But do big companies, like Facebook and google, follow the GDPR protocols?

Big companies don’t comply
Nowadays, there are many proof of evidence, where big companies don’t follow the principles of the GDPR. Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, recently testified before congress about the Cambridge Analytical Scandal in which Cambridge obtained private Facebook data (around 87 million of Facebook profiles). This may have aid in several political campaigns since then. Another example is the Uber “God View” case back in 2015. That was a high profile case of data misuse. It take place when an employee at Uber, violated the company’s policy by using its God View tool in order to track a journalist who was late for an interview with an Uber exec. “God View” here refers to the ability of the company’s staff to track both Uber vehicles and customers at the same time.

Final thoughts
To conclude, every user, citizen or whatever is called, is basically a person, a human being who has the right to keep their data private or choose the data he wants to share and with whom. Free from the eyes of those big giants. Who has the right to be forgotten at any time; or simply request all kind of data someone holds on him. We’re facing a big change. Let’s hope this is for good and will wake up every single person out there.

Authors: Kyriakos Kyriakou & Andronikos Zantis

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With General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on sight, every company that’s affected is rushing to comply with all the rules that it enforces. Many companies that once recklessly collected massive amounts of your personal information without showing you the full picture, are now obligated to disclose exactly what they have on you.

Google ofcourse is no exception to the rule. After the recent massive backlash on Facebook and it’s surveillance like data collection, internet users now demand to know exactly what other companies know about them.

Here’s how to download your Google archive

Step 1:

Head on to: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

Step 2:

Select the information that you want to download and click “NEXT”. You have plenty to choose from since Google appears to know way too much about you and your whereabouts.

Step 3:

After selecting your desired delivery method, click “CREATE ARCHIVE”.

The amount of data stored by Google is massive,therefore you can expect your archive many hours or even days after your initial request.

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