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EU: Commission proposes new level of privacy regulations

By  |  January 12, 2017

The European Commission (EC) wants stricter privacy rules to govern the online environment, bringing Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, and others on par with telecoms in terms of privacy.

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    Current online services and communications apps currently don’t follow the same privacy rules that apply to telecom operators, but the EC believes they should. If the Commission’s latest proposal gets approval, Europe’s ePrivacy Directive would extend to services and apps including, but not limited to Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp Messenger, Google’s Gmail and Apple’s iMessage.

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    Moreover, the EC also wants to implement some new rules regarding the use of cookies, aiming to make the so-called “cookie provision” more streamlined so that users would no longer get bombarded by a slew of consent requests. The Commission says that its new rules aim to put more control in the users’ hands, offering an easy way to accept or decline cookie tracking and other identifiers.

    For streamlining purposes, the new proposal notes that no consent should be required for cookies that improve the online experience and are not privacy-intrusive. An example of such positive cookie use would be remembering users’ shopping card history so they could pick up where they left off.

    Full content: TechTimes

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