The director of the AEPD, Mar España, awarded in the category ‘Innovation’ in the VI Confilegal Awards

  • The jury has valued the work done in the field of data protection and privacy, advocating for legal and technological solutions to minimise the negative impact of misuse of the Internet and social media, especially in the context of sensitive content and the protection of minors
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(November, the 27th of 2023). The director of the Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD), Mar España, has been awarded in the VI Confilegal Awards in the category of ‘Innovation’. The jury assessed “the work done in the field of data protection and privacy, advocating for legal and technological solutions to minimise the negative impact of misuse of the Internet and social networks, especially in the context of sensitive content and the protection of minors”. This award sums up to the 24 awards that the AEPD has already received in recent years for its initiatives to protect people in a digital world.

Confilegal has also awarded in the VI edition of its Women in a Legal World Association Awards in the category of Commitment; to the lawyers José María de Pablo and Francisco Pérez Bes, in Independence and LegalTech respectively, to the path of the magistrate of the Constitutional Court, Juan Carlos Campo and, posthumously, the magistrate emeritus of the Constitutional Court and of the Supreme Court, Rafael de Mendizábal.

Protection of vulnerable groups

The Spanish Data Protection Authority is an independent public authority that has among its priority objectives to protect people on the Internet, especially the most vulnerable groups, through the protection of their privacy and their personal data. In line with the 2030 Agenda and the Corporate Social Responsibility Plan of the AEPD, work has been done to raise awareness among children and their families about the responsible use of the internet through various campaigns (More than a mobile phone, One click can ruin your life or For all that is behind); promoted working groups with different Authorities to carry out protection actions in coordination against websites with content for adults that do not correctly verify the age of the people who access them. 

In parallel, the AEPD has a specialised childcare service and a specific website, supports the proposed State Pact ‘Protecting children and adolescents in the digital environment’ and collaborates with the Family Digital Plan of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics, a platform with useful information on the appropriate use of the Internet by minors for families and pediatricians, which includes recommendations endorsed by scientific evidence based on age.

Added to this is the introduction of the term digital violence in the Organic Law on the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents from Violence, which contemplates the possibility of denouncing the existence of illegal content on the Internet that seriously undermines the right to protection of personal data. In this regard, the AEPD's Priority Channel allows requesting the urgent removal of sexual or violent content published on the internet whose illegal dissemination puts at serious risk the rights and freedoms or the physical or mental health of the persons concerned.

Composition of the jury of the VI Confilegal Awards

The members of the Jury have been José Ramón Navarro, president of the National Audience; Rafael Catalá, lawyer and former Minister of Justice; Begoña Sánchez Melgar, lieutenant prosecutor of the Madrid Prosecutor’s Office; Victoria Ortega, President of the General Council of the Spanish Advocacy; Enrique Sanz Fernández-Lomana, president of the Mutualidad de la Abogacía; Juan Carlos Estévez, President of the General Council of Procurators of Spain; José Ángel Martínez Sanchiz, President of the General Council of Notaries; Juan José Sánchez Puig, CEO of ISDE, and Sebastián del Rey, Director of Institutional Relations of the College of Registrars. Vicente Magro, Judge of the Supreme Court; Alberto García Barrenechea, dean of the College of Procurators of Madrid; Ofelia Tejerina, President of the Association of Internet users; Rocío Pérez Puig, from Ramón y Cajal Abogados; Emilia Zaballos, Managing Partner of Zaballos Abogados; Patricia Rosety, President of the Association of Legal Communicators and Informators; Juan Carlos Campo, magistrate of the Constitutional Court; Isabel Winkels, managing partner of Winkels Abogados and vice-dean of the Madrid Bar Association; José María Garzón, managing partner of Garzón Abogados and Julen Ariza and Carlos Berbell, editor and director of Confilegal, respectively.