The European Commission has proposed tougher, “high level” privacy rules for electronic communications, with a focus on restricting the advertising tracking powers of popular services such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype and Gmail.
The measures were presented yesterday under the title of Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications , and aim to “reinforce trust and security in the Digital Single Market”, while bringing standards in line with the incoming GDPR legislation .
First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said the proposals “will complete the EU data protection framework”, ensuring “the privacy of electronic communications is protected by up to date and effective rules, and that European institutions will apply the same high standards that [the EU] expect[s] from… Member States” .
The Regulation proposals name WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Gmail, iMessage and Viber specifically as examples of “electronic communications services” that the privacy rules will cover in order to “increase the protection of people’s private life”. The current ePrivacy Directive, the EU states, “only applies to traditional telecoms operators”.
Other proposals include “stronger rules” on making all people and businesses equally protecting in electronic communications, as well as a focus on protecting metadata “derived from electronic communications” with “time of a call and location” cited as an example of this.
