[P2P-F] Fwd: [opennetcoalition] Major Loopholes in Privacy Regulation - Parliament Must Stand For Citizens

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: La Quadrature du Net <jz at laquadrature.net>
Date: Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 8:48 PM
Subject: [opennetcoalition] Major Loopholes in Privacy Regulation -
Parliament Must Stand For Citizens
To: opennetcoalition at laquadrature.net


Themes: EUROPEAN DATA PROTECTION, PRIVACY, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, JAN PHILIPP
ALBRECHT, LOOPHOLES

La Quadrature du Net – For immediate release

Permanent link:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/major-loopholes-in-privacy-regulation-parliament-must-stand-for-citizens


Major Loopholes in Privacy Regulation - Parliament Must Stand For Citizens



*** Strasbourg, 21 October 2013 — The “Civil Liberties” (LIBE) Committee
had just voted its report on Data Protection, led by Jan Philipp Albrecht
[1]. Despite some improvements, major loopholes – especially on “legitimate
interest” and “pseudonymous” data – and the adoption of the secrete
tripartite negotiation mandate (trilogue) could make the final text totally
ineffective at protecting citizens. During these forthcoming negotiations,
representatives of the Parliament should secure strong safeguards for
citizens fundamental right to privacy. ***

By adopting compromise amendments 6 [2] and 20 [3], members of the “Civil
Liberties” (LIBE) Committee, responsible of this matter, introduce the risk
to make the whole legislation completely ineffective, despite the progress
made tonight – explicit consent principle have for example been mantained.
The Members of the LIBE Committee also made the very disturbing choice of
accept the secrete tripartite negotiations [4] requested by the rapporteur
Jan Philipp Albrecht. The text will now be modified behind closed doors,
between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council
(ministers from the Member States) . The latter could use untransparent
negotiations to annihilate all the positive provisions of this Regulation,
leading to a weak and dangerous final version of this legislation. To begin
these negotiations in this way will undermine the European Parliament's
position, and reduce the chance of public debate and citizen mobilisation.

In absence of democratic and transparent debate, the representatives of the
European Parliament in these opaque negotiations should make sure that the
achievements for strong safeguards for citizens' fundamental right to
privacy are protected, even if that means postponing the adoption of the
final Regulation. It will be better to have a real protection of European
citizen privacy at the end of a long process, than a dangerous weak text
before the next European election. The Parliament must seize the occasion
of plenary vote to remove the dangerous loopholes opened by today's vote.

“Even though today's vote marks some advances for the protection of
privacy, it introduces major loopholes that could make the whole Regulation
ineffective. However, the regrettable choice of the LIBE Committee to enter
into secrete tripartite negotiation could significantly weaken the
Regulation. Representatives of the European Parliament will have to weigh
in all along the negotiation process to make sure that the fundamental
right of European citizen to privacy is fully protected.” concluded Miriam
Artino, policy analyst for the citizen organisation La Quadrature du Net.





* References *

1. https://memopol.lqdn.fr/europe/parliament/deputy/JanPhilippAlbrecht/

2. This compromise may turn the “legitimate interest” exception into the
main legal basis for processing, depriving citizens of any prior control
(such as explicit consent) over how their personal data are processed. (
http://www.edri.org/files/eudatap/06COMPArticle06.pdf)

3. This compromise would void any protection against profiling based on
“pseudonymous” data. But “pseudonymous” data may still be easily attributed
to data subjects through further processing. Thus, any profiling based on
such data must stay under data subjects' control. (
http://www.edri.org/files/eudatap/20COMPArticle20.pdf)

4.
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/data-protection-regulation-la-quadratures-voting-recommendations-to-libe#transparency






** About la Quadrature du Net **


La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that defends the rights and
freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More specifically, it advocates for
the adaptation of French and European legislations to respect the founding
principles of the Internet, most notably the free circulation of knowledge.

In addition to its advocacy work, the group also aims to foster a better
understanding of legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and
pertinent information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage
citizens' participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the
digital age.

La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and international
NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Open Society
Institute and Privacy International.

List of supporting organisations:
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-la-quadrature-du-net


** Press contact and press room **

Jérémie Zimmermann, jz at laquadrature.net, +33 (0)615 940 675

http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room



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