Google, Facebook and WhatsApp to face tougher restrictions when tracking you online
Email providers will have to guarantee the
confidentiality of customer conversations under new proposals
The
European Commission has proposed new legislation to ensure the stronger privacy
of individuals when it comes to using online messaging services including
WhatsApp, iMessage and Gmail.
Věra
Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality said the new
strategy will “facilitate international data exchanges in the global
digital economy and promote high data protection standards worldwide.”
Under
the proposal, tech companies including Google and Facebook will have to
guarantee the confidentiality of their customers’ conversations and make sure
to get their consent before tracking them online, something that is used to
serve customers with personalised ads.
At
the moment, email services such as Gmail
can scan customers’ emails to serve them targeted ads without explicit
agreement from the users. The proposal would do away with this, something that
online services are worried about as this could reduce their advertising
revenue stream.
Consent
for internet users in the European
Union is something else the Commission wants to guarantee. Changes will be
made to the way “cookies” are used on websites, which are used by tech
companies to track online behaviour in order to deliver targeted ads. If the
proposals pass, internet users will need to agree to websites using cookies or
anything else on a site that is attempting to track their online activities.
The
metadata of users will also be protected. Metadata records what time you visit
a website, what device you accessed it from and how long you were on the site
for. When metadata is linked to communication, e.g using Facebook Messenger
or Skype, users who do not consent to the data being used will have it deleted
or made anonymous. This is part of the vice-president for the Digital Single
Market, Andrus Ansip’s, plans to “ensure confidentiality of electronic
communications and privacy.”
However,
if you do consent to your metadata being used, companies will be able to
process communication content, provided this complies with privacy safeguards.
This will allow operators to process metadata to provide additional services
and develop their business, something they have not been able to do previously.
The
new regulations could also help do away with marketing calls. The proposal
wants to ban unsolicited emails, texts and phone calls, if users have not given
their consent. It would require that marketing callers display their phone
number or use a special pre-fix that indicates a marketing call – so you can
tell who is calling you and whether or not to reject it.
Companies
that fail to abide by the new regulations will face fines of up to four per
cent of their global turnover. Ulitmately, the larger the company the harsher
the punishment.
The
proposals will need to be approved by the European Parliament and member states
before becoming law. The General Data Protection Regulation is set to come into
law in May 2018, which allows users more control over their person data, so we
could see the new proposals being set in stone around a similar time.
WIRED
has contacted both Facebook and Google for comment on the proposals.
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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