The Royal Decree of 1720/2007, 21 December 2007, came into effect on 19 April 2008 to regulate the development of the Organic Law on Personal Data Protection (LOPD). This has been long awaited by those who apply the law, consulting and security companies, by marketing and advertising sectors of companies dedicated to financial and credit solvency, and, to a lesser extent by consumers and users. It gives the corresponding regulated development to the Organic Law on personal data protection, and responds to the new needs of the constantly evolving information society. The RLOPD (Reglamento governing the LOPD) regulates giving consent for positive administrative silence, giving of consent by minors, introduces systematic exercising of rights by those affected, exhaustively regulates marketing and advertising databases and those of financial solvency and credit, gives the processor a legal status, supplies a whole new framework for security measures, and systemises the procedures passed on by the Spanish Agency for Data Protection. The approved text obviously is not to the satisfaction of all: the many authorities involved (state and autonomic) and many agents with different perspectives mean that the solutions offered are not those which all those involved consider ideal. However, the new regulations are a step forward in the consolidation of rights for personal data protection, bring better legal security and flexibility, and must be seen as an opportunity to create a new culture for data protection integrated in processing information on a global scale.
