EDPS calls for urgent adoption of new ePrivacy law

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has called for urgent adoption of the reform of European ePrivacy regulation first proposed by the European Commission back in January 2017. In a blog post, the EU's top privacy official Giovanni Buttarelli said the reform is crucial to protect the fundamental rights to privacy and the protection of personal data in the digital age. He urged lawmakers to advance quickly to allow legal certainty and a level playing field for market operators, with the reform described as “the indispensable missing piece of the jigsaw” to complete the EU’s framework for data protection and confidentiality of communications.

The reasons set out in the post include the fact that the GDPR introduced in May only regulates data protection, not the privacy of communications, and that the GDPR alone is not enough to change the predominant business model of surveillance. Buttarelli also pointed out that under current rules not all communications providers are required to give people control over their most intimate data.

With the 2014-2019 term of office for MEPs and the current College of European Commissioners about to expire, the EDPS said a higher level of protection is urgently needed in view of the importance of the principle of confidentiality of communications and the particularly sensitive nature of metadata. “From a data protection and privacy perspective, there is no excuse for not agreeing on the ePrivacy Regulation under the present legislature and to risk an even less certain outcome in the year or years to come,” he said.