European Data Protection Supervisor on ePrivacy Regulation

A guest post with an interview of Giovanni Buttarelli, the European Data Protection Supervisor, was recently published in the Irish Tech News. The interview contains Mr. Buttarelli’s thoughts on the upcoming ePrivacy Regulation, the text of which is still undergoing revisions. Because many privacy professionals are closely following this upcoming privacy law in Europe, we thought we would summarize and quote some of those remarks here.

The question Mr. Buttarelli was asked on ePrivacy:

“The ePrivacy regulation will provisionally come into effect in 2019. Why do we need the ePrivacy regulation in addition to GDPR, what does it regulate and what is the currrent state of the legislative process?”

On the current status of the negotiations:

According to Buttarelli, the Presidency of the Council by Austria has made completion of the ePrivacy Regulation a priority on the agenda and it is now “gaining the urgency it deserves.”

On why the ePrivacy Regulation is needed, Buttarelli said:

“ePrivacy is necessary to fill in the gaps left by the GDPR, which does not fully cover the specific sectors of the economy that provide communication services. Communications are supposed to be default confidential. That is what people expect and what the EU fundamental right to privacy requires. Until now, the rules have only covered traditional communications.”

” … ePrivacy will go a long way to stopping constant snooping on people’s communications via services and apps. It will stop companies forcing people to accept being monitored (‘tracking walls’) in exchange for accessing content online. In doing so, it has the potential to change market incentives and thereby to encourage innovation so that access to information on the internet does not depend on invasive surveillance practices.”

Read the interview:

Mr. Buttarelli was also asked about his views on democracy, GPDR, the conflict between freedom of expression and data protection, and what he likes to do in his free time. The full interview is available via this link.

Other Blog Posts on ePrivacy Regulation:

ePrivacy Regulation Destined for a 2021 Start Date?
EDPB Releases Agenda of Fifth Plenary
Will 2019 Be the Year of GDPR Enforcement & Finalization of the ePrivacy Regulation?
EDPS Urges Adoption of ePrivacy Regulation
Latest on ePrivacy from Austria
EDPS on ePrivacy Regulation
Presidency Proposes Changes to ePrivacy Articles 6, 8 and 10
Significant Progress on ePrivacy Regulation Highlighted by Progress Report
EDBP Pushes ePrivacy Regulation After GDPR Goes Into Effect
Revised ePrivacy Regulation Draft Circulated

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