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The latest report from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), ‘Access to data protection remedies in EU Member States’, shows that victims of data abuse often lack the understanding about data protection and the authorities that serve to help them.

FRA Director Morten Kjaerum warned “ Today it is too easy to simply collect and abuse the personal data of Europe’s citizens.” The Report from the EU Fundamental RightsAgency shows that “ many citizens don't know where to go to if their data has been misused.”

This is why the European Commission proposes a data protection reform which is aimed at making data protection easier. The European Commission wants to install a one stop shop for citizens through which they can always address their local data protection supervisor.

Interviews with victims of data abuse have shown that most victims of violations turn to data protection authorities. They often do this to ensure similar violations do not reoccur rather than to seek financial compensation. Only in exceptional cases do they go through courts.

The FRA suggests in the report to raise public awarenessof complaint mechanisms, offer data protection training for legal professionals, and to strengthen the independence of data protection authorities. The report also contains an overview of the legal framework and the procedures people can use in cases of data protection violations.

The FRA has further published a handbook on European data protection case law. The handbook, developed together with the Council of Europe, is aimed at legal professionals and non-governmental organisations who are not specialists in data protection.