AUTOCONTROL has been awarded by the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) with the «Proactivity and Good Practice in Compliance with the Data Protection Regulation and the Organic and Guarantee of Digital Rights» prize.
The AEPD announced the award on 28 January, coinciding with International Data Protection Day.
The award recognises that AUTOCONTROL’s self-regulatory system for the protection of personal data and advertising «facilitates compliance with the regulation and offers out-of-court procedures to resolve data subjects’ claims, both in the advertising sector and in data protection disputes arising from contracts for the provision of electronic communications services».
For the Agency, the candidature of AUTOCONTROL demonstrates the significant contribution of the AUTOCONTROL system to strengthening the guarantees of the right to data protection in the field of advertising. This is achieved by advising companies, resolving disputes with consumers and raising awareness and training for both parties.
The Data Protection and Advertising Complaints System is part of the Code of Conduct on Data Processing in Advertising. It establishes a complaints system that can be an alternative to the AEPD and the courts. It is free for consumers, agile and efficient, with clear benefits for consumers and businesses. It allows the AEPD to refer complaints to AUTOCONTROL, which reserves the right to intervene if it deems it necessary. Since the adoption of the Code, to which 79 companies have signed up, we have received more than 4,000 complaints and more than 12,000 queries from consumers.