The sending of e-mails with election propaganda to Ecuadorians living abroad, in the days before the elections last October 15, shows the fragility of private data. The National Electoral Council (CNE) clarified that neither the email nor the digital addresses came from that institution.

The organic law on the protection of personal data was published in Ecuador on May 26, 2021, while the sanctioning regime of the same legal body has been operational, in theory, for five months.

Public and private companies have had two years to adapt to the regulations before introducing a sanctioning regime for data misuse. It is not strange for users to receive requests for authorization in this sense, as they should; However, calls or messages offering products or services were not eliminated either, which indicates a lack of control over private information. However, the Government does not yet consider it appropriate to introduce sanctions, at least that’s what Vianna Maino, Minister of Telecommunications and Information Society, said on Friday, October 27.

And more than the fact that it is not convenient, it is that the outstanding debts make it unsustainable. The executive authority sent two shortlists to the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control for the election of a data protection supervisor – who must be in charge of imposing legal sanctions and applying corrective measures in case of misuse of user data. -. The last one was sent this week.

Another unresolved regulation was presented to the executive in January of last year, according to information published by the same ministry, but its publication is unknown.

Progress in paying these debts is crucial so that Ecuadorians are not left helpless in the face of the danger posed by the misuse of data. These are not only invasive calls to privacy, but even threats to the economy that have been reported in the past. (OR)