The webinar, a tool increasingly used in the current context generated by the Covid pandemic 19
The meaning of the term webinar is represented by the organization of a video meeting, in the online environment, in which a person, more precisely the host of the respective seminar, can connect through the internet with his audience. Of course, it is imperative to recognize that this modern method of supporting courses through which people can benefit from a variety of new information from which they can even obtain new qualifications, brings a number of advantages that today’s professionals do not I can lose them. Thus, some of the advantages that a webinar can offer refer to the exemption of travel time and even the elimination of costs related to transport, accommodation and others, the possibility of participants to interact with all those who take part in the seminar, the opportunity to use a multitude of methods by which the presentation of materials to be done in the easiest and most useful way, having at their disposal the technological means available to the speaker when giving his lecture.
Romania is an integral part of the European Union, which means that at the time of its accession to it, it has assumed the obligation to comply with all the regulations established by the Union. Therefore, on 27 April 2016, the Council and the Parliament of Europe regulated the right to the protection of personal data of the individual as a fundamental right that all Member States of the Union must ensure by all its means, both online and offline. outside of it.
These regulations have been taken over and legislated in accordance with European provisions and by Romania, so that on May 25, 2018, the law on the protection of personal data entered into force.
Most webinars, depending on the service that the supporter chooses, provide for the need to download an application that subsequently offers users the opportunity to participate in the seminar. This is generally done by clicking on an email invitation, especially if the webinar provides for a maximum number of potential participants.
Email, along with other identifying elements of a person such as: phone number, name, surname, data from the bulletin, address and more, are among the personal data that the GDPR law, or more precisely General Data Protection Regulation defends them, wanting to assure the individual that their provision in the context of a particular action, may not have the immediate or not immediate consequence of the use of such data by other persons in other situations.
It is important to specify and remember that this regulation, established according to the Council and the European Parliament in law 679/2016 and in Romania in the normative act no. 190/2018, is addressed only to natural persons, as individual entities whose rights , the state undertakes to defend them in the light of its domestic laws, but also of the international pacts to which it is a party.
Webinars are, in most cases, about exposing information about how companies can promote a product, keep in touch with customers, keep expenses to a minimum, create a profit center, or capture potential consumers, all of which involve the use of personal data of all persons involved in these collaborations, data that may be the subsequent object of the action of the state coercive force in case their right to protection is violated.
Another important aspect, apart from the fact that the limits of this law are of interest only to individuals, is the obligation of website owners and all companies that need to specify personal data, to ensure that the required agreement must be drawn up in a form that is as concise, clear, intelligible as possible, which cannot leave any trace of interpretation. We must also understand that this agreement must be requested and, of course, offered by users, whenever the latter take new action to carry out certain tasks, so that the legislator ensures that the possibility that these agreements to be reused in a defective way and, perhaps, even illegally, is null and void, at least in principle.
Therefore, in the field of supporting the Webinars, GDPR presents one of the elements without which this field cannot exist and cannot continue its activity within the limits imposed by the regulations in force.
Signed
ŞTEFANIA HOŢOIU
