EU - Data Protection Reform

Digital Enlightenment Forum

On Monday the 18th of June Viviane Reding, the European Commission Vice-President for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, gave a speech at the Digital Enlightenment Forum in Luxembourg.

In her speech Vice-President Reding commented on the proposed ‘right to be forgotten’ stating that “just as you cannot force your neighbour to forget that he saw you in the local shopping centre yesterday, you cannot enforce an absolute right to be forgotten on the Internet”.

Datenschutz und Datensicherheit Conference

In the meantime, Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), gave a speech on Monday at the 14th annual Datenschutz und Datensicherheit (DuD) conference in Berlin.

Hustinx hinted at the fact that “we will see some conclusions in the course
of next year, probably under the Irish presidency”, and considers that “in any case by 2014, I would think, this has a good chance of being adopted”.

Next to this, Hustinx also remarked that “we should also consider very carefully whether - and if so where and how - the Regulation should allow more space for specification of its provisions in national law”.

The European Economic & Social Committee’s Opinion

The above statement seems in line with the European Economic and Social Committee’s (EESC) Opinion on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) drafted by Jorge Pegado Liz, as the Committee notes that “a certain number of delegations of power could be directly regulated by the European legislator”, while “others could fall within the remit of national supervisory authorities or their European-level association”.

Art. 29 Working Party on Binding Corporate Rules for Processors

On Tuesday the 19th of June the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (Art. 29 WP) published a working document (WP195) on Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs) for Processors, which it adopted at its 86th meeting on the 6th and 7th of June in Brussels.

This working document provides a checklist describing the conditions to be met in order to facilitate the use of BCR for processors, as it defines what must be found in BCRs, and what must be presented to DPAs in the BCR application.

EDPS Annual Report 2011 & Updated Inventory of Legislative Consultation

On Thursday the 21st of June Peter Hustinx, the EDPS, published its annual Report 2011.

“2011 was a very productive year, in line with our efforts to ensure consistent and effective protection of privacy and personal data in a fast-changing, interconnected world. In its support of technological advances and economic development, particularly in an age of austerity, it is important that the EU administration does not lose sight of the right of the European citizen to privacy and data protection. Only a joint effort to apply a consistent and effective approach will maintain this fundamental right.” - Peter Hustinx

Read the press release here, and see the video message of Hustinx and Giovanni Buttarelli here.

The EDPS also published an update of its strategic planning for legislative consultations in 2012.

EU Survey on Data Protection, Privacy & Electronic Identity

The Information Society (IS) unit of the Joint Research Centre’s Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) published its final Report on the largest European survey ever conducted on people’s behaviours, attitudes and regulatory preferences concerning data protection, privacy and electronic identity, both on the Internet and otherwise in their daily lives.

The survey has been conducted in the 27 Member States between November and December 2010, and addresses e-commerce, social networking sites (SNS), identity and authentication, and medical information.

Data Protection for the Digital Age

The Greens/EFA Group is holding a hearing in the European Parliament on ‘data protection for the digital age’ on Thursday the 28th of June from 9.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. in Room A1G3.

Register for the event here, and follow the live stream here.

This hearing is divided into three panels:

1. The Right to be Forgotten, or: How to Exercise User Rights?;
2. Code as Law? Technological Approaches and Privacy-Driven Technology Development; and,
3. Police Data Sharing and Access to Corporate Databases.