In this book, the protection of personal data is compared for eight EU member states,namely France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Sweden andthe Netherlands. The comparison of the countries is focused on government policiesfor the protection of personal data, the applicable laws and regulations, implementationof those laws and regulations, and supervision and enforcement.Although the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) harmonizes the protectionof personal data across the EU as of May 2018, its open norms in combination withcultural differences between countries result in differences in the practical implementation,interpretation and enforcement of personal data protection.With its focus on data protection law in practice, this book provides indepth insightsinto how different countries deal with data protection issues. The knowledge and bestpractices from these countries provide highly relevant material for legal professionals,data protection officers, policymakers, data protection authorities and academicsacross Europe.Bart Custers is Associate Professor and Director of Research at the Center for Law andDigital Technologies of the Leiden Law School at Leiden University, the Netherlands.Alan M. Sears, Francien Dechesne, Ilina Georgieva and Tommaso Tani are all affiliated tothat same organization, of which Professor Simone van der Hof is the General Director.