I could hardly believe it when I read the latest developments on the negotiations of the EU Data Protection Regulation in an article on the German heise news site. Of course it is nice to hear that there is progress at all, but the suggestion to skip noticing the authorities in case of an incident if the data has been stored encrypted is nonsense. Encryption is an important bit in the puzzle, but it does not protect against many threats. It mainly helps if the device (server) is turned off or during data transfer. It does not help against most common problems like application vulnerabilities, unpatched servers, weak authentication or insecure passwords. A device might be easily hacked even though the data is encrypted. Trusting in encryption alone is like trusting in your car’s security systems like the airbag only and not caring about traffic rules or speed limits: it won’t function.

Hopefully data protection experts do not let them influence too much by lobbyists and listen a bit more to people understanding how personal data is protected in real-life scenarios by a comprehensive approach supported by technology and processes.