Ochrona Danych

Warsaw. Polish lawmakers moved forward on December 15 with tighter rules on how companies and public agencies handle personal information, a step that came after months of quiet debate in parliament. The proposed changes aimed to give individuals more control over their data, including clearer consent requirements and faster ways to request deletions. Officials said the measures would align national law more closely with emerging European standards without waiting for Brussels to finalize everything.

Critics from the tech sector argued the rules could slow down everyday online services and raise costs for smaller firms. During committee hearings that day, representatives from several internet companies warned that strict reporting deadlines for data breaches might overwhelm their compliance teams. Lawmakers pushed back, noting that repeated incidents of unauthorized access had already left many citizens exposed.

Privacy advocates welcomed the timing. They pointed to a string of leaks earlier in the year that involved health records and banking details, cases that had drawn limited public attention until advocacy groups highlighted them. One group released a report the same week showing that average users still struggled to understand privacy policies on popular platforms.

The bill also addressed cross-border data transfers, requiring Polish entities to verify that foreign partners met basic security levels. Supporters said this would reduce the risk of data ending up in jurisdictions with weaker oversight. Opponents countered that such checks might prove difficult to enforce in practice.

Debate was expected to continue into the new year, with final votes possibly delayed until spring. For now, the December 15 session marked the first formal reading of the updated text.