GDPR & The ePrivacy Regulation
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (2002/58/EC) goes hand in hand with data protection and focuses primarily on personal data, data protection and privacy in the digital arena. Known as the ‘ePrivacy Directive’, its core is rooted in the EU’s secondary law (Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU), the fundamental right to the respect for private life, regarding communications.
With the technological advances of the past decade, modernisation of the current data protection framework was essential, and so too followed a similar review of the privacy and electronic communications regulations.
The new ePrivacy Regulation proposes to replace the current Directive, working in conjunction with the GDPR, with specific focus on electronic communications data that qualifies as personal data. The new Regulation seeks to update the protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms relating to the confidentiality of information and communications (i.e. spam, traffic data and website cookies) and the respect for private life.
The new Regulation would be enforced in May 2018 alongside the GDPR, bringer stronger rules and a standardised approach to the regulation and protection of electronic communications. Some of the proposed Regulation changes are: –
● To streamline the cookie provision, with browsers being required to offer settings that provide an easy way to accept or refuse tracking cookies and other identifiers
● Opportunities for organisations to gain new business after consent has been given for communications data to be processed. Traditional telecoms operators will be able to provide additional services (i.e. producing heat maps indicating the presence of individuals).
● More effective spam protections with the banning of unsolicited electronic communications by emails, SMS and automated calling machines.
Read more about the proposal here.