Germany Calls For Overhaul Of EU Privacy Rules

Europe’s landmark privacy rules must be overhauled to ensure proper enforcement and protection of people’s rights, Johannes Caspar, a leading German regulator, said ahead of the law’s two-year anniversary.

Failure to enforce the rules against big companies and a lack of cooperation between regulators have fundamentally undermined the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the head of Hamburg’s data protection authority told Politico. 

“I’m completely critical of the enforcement structure of the GDPR,” said Caspar, whose office is in charge of overseeing the German activities of several Silicon Valley firms. “The whole system doesn’t work.”

His comments come as the bloc’s privacy enforcers have yet to agree on almost any penalties against large firms for potential abuse. The law passed in May of 2018 allows for penalties amounting to as much as 4% of a firm’s annual revenues in the event of a breach and has become a template for countries around the world, yet so far no blockbuster fines have been announced.

On Friday, May 22, Ireland’s privacy watchdog, in charge of overseeing firms like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Apple, announced it had finished an investigation into Twitter, its first major move against a Big Tech company under Europe’s new privacy standards.

Full Content: Politico

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