The 10 January 2017, the European Commission announced its draft regulation on privacy aims to reforming the e-privacy directive and to reinforcing the respect of individual’s private life in electronic communications sector. It follows the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This draft regulation should come into force in 25 May 2018, on the same date as the GDPR (cf. news concerning the European regulation).

Among the new measures proposed, the draft regulation notably provides th

• the new stakeholders in electronic communications sector more commonly called « OTT » (over-the-top), such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger and Viber will be subject to the same rules applicable to the traditional telecom operators relating to the respect of personal data processing. Thus, in particular, the OTT will obtain the prior consent of the internet users before the exploitation of their data;

• the rules for the cookies will be simplified in order to avoid systematically sending a consent request from the internet users when they are surfing the web. Thus, the internet users will can give their prior consent for tracking cookies during the configuration of the web browser. However, the draft regulation will not change the rules applicable to the non-intrusive cookies improving the internet users’ researches: no prior consent will be required;

• the metadata processing will be also regulated. It will be subject to the prior consent of the internet users and, failing that, the metadata will be anonymised or deleted.

The next step will be the adoption of the draft regulation by the European Parliament and the Council. The European Commission strongly hopes that this regulation could be adopted no later than 25 May 2018 in order to enter into force with the GDPR.

Behring – Anne-Solène Gay – Juris Initiative – draft regulation – draft regulation concerning private life – E-privacy directive – Directive 2002/58/EC of 12 July 2002 – Directive 2002/58/EC of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (directive on privacy and electronic communications) – Directive on privacy and electronic communications – European Commission – General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR