The new European data privacy legislation has some worried that its stringency could kill off data-driven online services and limit innovations. This interesting topic came to us from Financial Review in their article, “Europe’s new data privacy laws could kill digital innovation.”
The American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union called the legislation “overly strict.” The Developers Alliance, a trade group representing Facebook, Google, Intel and dozens of app makers, said it could cost businesses in Europe more than 550 billion euros (or about $640 billion) in annual lost revenue. DigitalEurope, another tech trade group, said the legislation’s prohibitive approach “seriously undermines the development of Europe’s digital economy”.
The ePrivacy Regulation specifically protects the confidentiality of electronic communications. The law was approved by the European Parliament in late 2017 and is under review by the Council of the European Union. If the current draft prevails, the law will require applications with messaging and other electronic services that allow private interactions to obtain people’s explicit permission before placing tracking codes on users’ devices or collecting data about their communications.
Industry and consumer advocates are fighting over whether data-driven digital services represent more of a boon to consumers or the kind of surveillance that can threaten democracy.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
