Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 11(2), 2009                Călin Veghe 1 Carmen Pantea 2 Diana Bălan 3 Bogdan Lalu 4 ABSTRACT: The increasing marketing efforts of the organizations based on the acquiring, processing, storage and employment of the consumers’ personal data have imposed the reconsideration, both from the theoretical and practical perspectives, of the concepts describing the privacy, consumer’s private space and personalization. Paper intends to assess, based on secondary data and in an exploratory manner, the views of the consumers from the European Union countries regarding the ways the different organizations present in the market handle their personal data, the degree of awareness associated with the existence and functioning of the personal data protection in their home countries and their perception related to the effectiveness of the personal data protection. Keywords: privacy, personal data protection, personalization, European Union JEL codes: M31                                                                      !  " #$$%&                               ’ #$$#& (    )*&             + +   +         + ’ ),&                      +     &     -                 +     -                   ./ #$$%&       +    +               (or )                      &          ) 0  " 1  " 2  3 ’ 4 56 # 783’9: 9  4 2 1  4 2  1 ;& 2  3 ’ 4 6 < 0  " 1  " 2  3 ’ 4 5)6 ,  = :> ? 4 56