The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU is continuing its efforts to reach a general approach on the regulation on the confidentiality of electronic communications (ePrivacy). On Monday 4 February, it published a new compromise that proposes to add the prevention of child pornography as a reason for processing data without consent.
Bucharest is walking on eggshells after the orientation debate at the December Telecommunications Council on this draft regulation, which aims to strengthen the confidentiality of online exchanges while allowing service providers to use the personal data of customers who have given their prior consent (see EUROPE 12152). It should be recalled that the Austrian Presidency had tried to reach a general approach, before changing its mind and limiting itself to a progress report in the face of Member States' reluctance (see EUROPE 12135).
The new Romanian document is based on three working sessions during which delegations were able to put their questions to the European Commission. It concerns the impact of the proposal on new technologies (such as the Internet of Things), the protection of children and the exclusion of national security and defence from the scope.
At the request of Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Romanian Presidency suggests adding the prevention of child pornography to Article 6 (authorised data processing). In Article 6 (1a), it nevertheless emphasises that such processing "shall be subject to appropriate safeguards, be limited to the sole purpose of detecting child pornography, and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the end user".
The text also addresses the difficult issue of tracers and targeted advertising. In recital 20a, it states that " implementation of technical means in electronic communications software to provide consent through transparent and user-friendly settings, can be useful to address this problem". It refers to whitelists of suppliers, which would allow the user to consent to the use of "all or certain types" of cookies by placing "one or more" suppliers on the whitelist.
This document will be discussed at the attachés' meeting on 7 February. The document is available by following the link: https://bit.ly/2MVqhOh. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)