Legal regulation of personal data protection

Abstract. The author examines contemporary principles of legal regulation regarding the protection of personal data, driven by the relevance of issues directly related to personal data protection, including the proliferation of digitalization in society and daily internet usage. This will make it possible to address the challenges and threats arising within the framework of modern development of civil society and the democratic and legal state in Ukraine, including unauthorized dissemination of personal data on social media, primarily containing negative legal characteristics. Therefore, attention is drawn to the necessity of optimizing the legal regulation of personal data protection, especially concerning the search for the most effective and reliable methods and means of their protection. Considering that the issue of personal data protection on the Internet concerns both the data subject (individual) and the state, a robust legislative framework is necessary, as data recipients do not always (sometimes not fully or selectively) adhere to legal norms. The state's advantage in guaranteeing the protection of personal data, and, furthermore, its duty of legal regulation and observance of the individual's right to the protection of their personal data, is proven. Additionally, the obligations of the parties involved in the use of personal data to ensure the protection of such data, particularly in terms of preventing unlawful access to them and information compromise, are substantiated. Therefore, it is noted that the legal regulation of personal data protection provides for a vertical of state services and authorities with corresponding powers to act exclusively within the framework of ensuring protection against unauthorized use of personal data. It has been clarified that one of the most common reasons for the danger and unauthorized use of personal data is primarily digital illiteracy (or its low level) among Internet users, especially concerning social networks, in terms of the availability of legal and technically secure means to safeguard personal data, both individual and state-wide. The study made it possible to conclude that, firstly, it is the state which is obliged to create the most effective regulatory and legal means of personal data protection, and, secondly, legal regulation of personal data protection provides for a set of preventive measures aimed at suppressing offences, applying coercion to offenders, and restoring the violated rights of an individual in terms of protection of his/her personal data.