Your online privacy matters

Since the European Union’s rules on online privacy were last updated in 2009, there have been huge changes in how we communicate online. Messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Telegram were still either in their infancy or had not yet been created. Faster mobile network and internet speeds have meant that the number of private conversations we have via the internet have exploded in the last 10 years.

However, the legal framework has not kept up with these changes.

The updated ePrivacy regulation we are proposing is designed to bring these laws up to date. It goes hand in hand with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to ensure that European citizen’s data and communication is protected online.

Our Group in the Parliament is fighting to ensure that you, not governments or multinational companies, are in control of your digital life. E-privacy is about freedom, freedom from unauthorised surveillance of your messages, freedom from being tracked — both online or offline, and freedom to access information and express yourself online.

How will the new rules help protect my privacy?

The new proposals are designed to ensure that you have the same protections when you communicate online as you do in the offline world. When you send a letter or you make a phone call, you reasonably expect that no one is listening to your call or using what you write for advertising purposes. However, this is not the case online. There has been evidence of companies scraping emails for keywords and selling this information to advertisers. Meanwhile, online companies still face less stringent rules on ensuring your conversations remain private. Today there is the slightly absurd situation where an SMS message is covered by e-Privacy rules but a Whatsapp message is not.

With the new proposals, companies such as Hotmail, Whatsapp, Gmail or Facebook Messenger are required to provide the same level of protection for your data as their offline equivalents. They will be required to secure your communications using the best available techniques and stay up to date with the latest technological innovations to make sure your privacy is protected.

Stopping online spam and invasive advertising

The new laws will ensure that you cannot be contacted without your consent — so cutting down on annoying spam. If you do not opt-in to receiving emails, text messages or automated calls, then companies will not be able to send them to you.

The new proposals will also help to abolish the current practice of surveillance-driven advertising. Users will now be able to decide whether companies are allowed to track them across the internet — it will still be possible but only if the user gives specific and informed consent.

There will also be better protection against tracking you offline. Under the current rules a shopping mall, for example, can track your movements through the WiFi signal on your phone. This is totally unacceptable. We want to allow offline tracking only when the user has given consent or when processing is limited to mere statistical counting, not allowing for any profile of your movement.

Privacy by design and by default

At the heart of these proposals is the principle that you should be in control of your online life. We believe that the person using a service should be the one deciding if, how and for which purpose their communication data are processed. Currently, there are ways to ensure that you are not tracked while you are online. However, a lot of people do not know about these options. The new law will help change that to ensure privacy is built in by design and by default. Meaning all internet users, regardless of their level of understanding can benefit from privacy when they use online services.

These proposals, alongside GDPR, help put users back in control of how their data and online conversations are used. The S&D Group has been at the forefront of this fight for online privacy. Fighting to protect your rights online is now as vital as protecting them offline. The internet is an incredible tool for good in the world but we need to ensure that we have high standards for privacy and data protection, this is fundamental for protecting individual freedom in the 21st Century.

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