Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

When the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were seen in Slovakia in early March, Slovak scientists began working on identifying in their own laboratories what was now a locally spreading virus. Boris Klempa, a virologist at the Slovak Academy of Scientists, is part of the team that first isolated the virus in this country, leading to the sequencing of its genome soon afterwards. He talks about how this achievement came about, and its significance in the effort to slow the spread of infection in this country. Whether it's for marketing, to influence the outcome of an election, or to decide which of us might be a threat to society, there are people whose job it is to collect as much information - about us - as they can get their hands on, and to use this valuable information to build personal, computer-generated profiles on each one of us. While Europe's new GDPR laws are meant to protect our online privacy, IT security specialist Pavol Luptak believes that the EU also wants to ensure that your online data will never be completely private.