The EU has been working for some time on a regulation to replace the e-Privacy Directive. The rules of this currently valid directive have been implemented in the Netherlands in the Telecommunications Act. The best-known rule from this is the "cookie law. The proposed regulation, called the e-Privacy Regulation, when it comes into force, will replace the directive and set additional rules compared to the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG) with regard to electronic communication data. What additional obligations this may entail for you can be read here.
The regulation will apply to all providers of electronic communications services. These services must then be offered to end users located in the European Union. It is irrelevant whether the end user has to pay for these services. Thus, free services such as Gmail and WhatsApp will also be subject to the regulation as currently proposed.
Some of the topics covered in the e-Privacy Regulation are:
Confidentiality of electronic communications
Communications made through the service must be protected from interception, monitoring and processing by third parties.
Purposes and conditions for processing communications data
The regulation describes the conditions under which the processing of communications data is permitted. An example of such a condition is processing the data if it is necessary for billing or fraud detection.
Obligation to help end users make choices about privacy settings
The communications service must allow the user to choose whether third parties store or process information in his/her terminal equipment. In addition, the user must be informed about the options available within the service's software to protect privacy. This information should be provided at installation.
Rights of end users regarding electronic communications
Among other things, the regulation regulates that users must be able to choose anonymous calling easily and free of charge. It also contains rules on blocking numbers and sending "direct marketing messages."
Whether and when the regulation will take effect is impossible to predict at this time. In any case, we will keep an eye on its progress and notify you when there is more clarity.
This article can also be found in the ePrivacy file
