Premiere of the new simulation game “Pushing for Privacy” in Aschaffenburg

On 26th of May 2017 the new simulation game "Pushing for Privacy" was applied for the first time. This simulation game addresses the data protection law challenges in times of an increasing digitization of almost all areas of life.

The simulation game was developed by the CIVIC Institute for International Education in cooperation with the Aschaffenburg University of Applied Sciences for the Global Masters School 2017 in Aschaffenburg. It completed a very challenging block week in which the international master students intensively worked on topics as "Digital Internal Market" and "International Negotiations".

The aim of the simulation is to illustrate the European legislative process namely within the framework of the ordinary legislative procedure. To this end, the nearly 30 students took over the roles of the relevant European protagonists:

As members of the European Commission they submitted a proposal for a regulation to harmonize the most important but highly fragmented rules on data protection.

As members of the European Parliament and as Ministers of Justice in the Council of the EU, they ar-gued and discussed this draft regulation and possible amendments:

Is there a 'right to be forgotten' in the digital world? And if so, what exactly should be forgotten and when? Do we want our data to be automatically deleted after a certain time? Or only upon request? What are sensitive data? Is not it convenient for us not to have to re-enter our data all the time?

Who should adhere to the common rules? European companies or even companies based outside the EU? Which economic consequences would too strict rules of data protection have? What weighs stronger: consumer protection or economic interests?

And what fines are appropriate for breach of the rules? Should not the countries be allowed to decide on the nature and height of fines on their own discretion?

These and other aspects were intensively and with great passion debated by the participating students in their respective institutions at an extremely high communication level.

Finally, as media representatives, they commented on the discussions of the committees, questioned them and made them accessible to the fictional European public in the context of a talk show.

At the end of the day, a joint regulation on data protection was reached, which was passed at a solemn meeting of all participants.