This is Paul Adamson and I'm in conversation with Giovanni Boutarelli.

Giovanni Boutarelli is the European Data Protection Supervisor.

Giovanni, the world of data privacy, data protection is full of people who are experts.

And I would like this conversation, this podcast,

to be more of a prime of the people who know this is a very important topic, but don't follow

it very closely maybe every day, like the experts do. So I'm going to start with some pretty

basic questions, so be prepared. And my first question is, what is your job? What does the

European Data Protection Supervisor do? Oh, let me start by say that I'm detached to this job.

I'm a member of the judiciary, so that's my background, criminal law,

anti-mafia legislation, organized crime, cybercrime.

That's my, I mean, that's my history. I am a commission in the sense that I

protect people against wrongdoing concerning the information relating to them

and I am a special advisor to the European Union legislator. So every piece of legislation

interesting by a privacy perspective is scrutinized by me. Okay. So everybody is talking at the moment

about something called the GDPR, the general data protection regulation, which I understand is

replacing legislation dating back to 1995.

You'll tell me this, you'll correct me if I'm wrong, that it was approved in May this year,

but has to be implemented by May of 2018.

So what is happening now? How are both private sector companies, the private sector and the public sector,

preparing for this new regulatory regime?

Oh, it's more than a Copernican revolution and everybody is around the world is looking to us

since this piece of legislation will be applicable to everybody in the world offering

...