At the beginning of the Workshop titled ‘Workshop on Communications privacy protection and self-protection of users and subscribers’, INA representative, stressed that users’ negligence in using mobile telephony encourages dangers for the citizens and enterprises privacy. The ultimate stable factor in communication is the user himself, while anything else is radically transformed. The type and manner of usage depend on the user beyond each technology. According to data deriving from a recent research, carried out in Great Britain for Vodafone UK subscribers:

1.	70% of the mobile users speak in public spaces for professional subjects and 1 in 5 even speak for critical confidential subjects
2.	15% admit that they speak for confidential subjects when they travel with means of massive transport
3.	26% admit that they took advantage from information they heard by mistake from some other’s telephone conversation.
4.	Only 6% avoid to talk about concrete information and critical data
5.	The research also reveals that users show negligence during discussing on phone in public spaces subjects related to personal data. 1/3 in the age of 16 to 24 use their mobile phone for such usage.

According to INA analyses, apart from dangers to communications privacy violation by technological weaknesses and third persons, even bigger dangers arise from careless usage. The most effective way of users and subscribers personal data protection is their continuous briefing on the ways of protection and secure communications’ use as well as their rights. The same picture also appears with regard to the Internet.

Nowadays, the protection of privacy lies more in the use, or even the abuse, and in the possibility of access in personal data. That is to say how they can be used and more important how they are NOT supposed to be used. The swift growth of ICT technologies has increased vertically the ability of storage and use of information, as computers and communication networks manage information concerning our consuming habits up to our medical background or even our aesthetic preferences.

The annual Conference on electronic security organised by INA during the last years in Thessaloniki, and which this year will be held on November, will focus more on issues of privacy.

The Meeting was organised by the Hellenic Authority for the Information and Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE), in collaboration with the Telecommunications Sector of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.