Youth organizations (YOs) collect and further use various types of information, including personal data. They collect personal data of their beneficiaries, members, staff members, consultants, volunteers, etc. Their work on daily basis relies on the use of such data.

The purpose of the Guide is to support YOs to improve their practices of collection and further use of personal data and to make their operation safer. Particular emphasis will be on practices in the digital environment. However, we will not neglect importance of adequate use of personal data in non-digital form.

Please bear in mind that this Guide does not provide legal advice. You should not perceive it as a tool for compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), national data protection rules or any other binding document. For such purposes, we advise you to consult available guides on compliance with data protection legislation and find out more about applicable practice of relevant national data protection authorities.

Intersection of this Guide and the Council of Europe Guide to Human Rights for Internet Users

In 2014 Council of Europe adopted The Guide to Human Rights for Internet Users “with the purpose to explain in user-friendly terms the rights and freedoms guaranteed to internet users by the European Convention on Human Rights” and to “educate individual internet users on their online rights”

Taking into account that YOs represent interests of young people and fight for their rights, we advise you to use CoE Guide for your advocacy and outreach efforts in a variety of domains, including freedom of information, antidiscrimination, education, privacy and data protection,
etc.

This guide, however, addresses one particular domain of the CoE guide – privacy and data protection in the context of digital safety. Therefore, its scope is quite limited. Moreover, its approach is somewhat different. Its primary target group is not general public. Rather than that, it aims to help YOs to address their responsibilities and appropriately improve their digital safety by protecting privacy and data protection rights of the people they interact with.