Companies and authorities are allowed to use consumer’s data without their consent

On Friday 13rd March, a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) was held in Brussels. During this meeting, the EU Member States expressed their views on data protection regulation, “one stop shop” mechanism and other issues.

Ministers agreed that the “one stop shop” mechanism should only play a role in important cross-border cases and will provide for cooperation and joint-decision making between several data protection authorities concerned. The text clarifies that the jointly agreed decision will be adopted by the data protection authority best placed to deliver the most effective protection from the perspective of the data subject. As regards to the general principles of data processing, Ministers have established a set of principles for lawful, fair and transparent data processing.

This comes in the wake of recent German diplomatic cables and thousands of pages of leaked classified EU documents revealing behind-the-scenes efforts by governments to weaken the EU’s data protection bill. Despite its public statements on the need for strong data protection, Germany is shown to be leading the pack of member states seeking more business-friendly standards throughout the whole of Europe. The German moves contradict last year’s call by Chancellor Angela Merkel for tough data protection rules in the wake of revelations about the US-led mass digital surveillance of EU nationals.

Parliament’s lead negotiator on the bill, German Green Jan Phillip Albrecht, in a statement released on Wednesday 11th March, described the watering-down attempts by national governments as “a scandal”. He noted proposals made by both the UK and Germany would allow businesses to use people’s data without their explicit consent for marketing and or determining credit-worthiness. He said such moves are below existing EU data protection rules and only benefit Internet firms.

The data protection legislative reform aims at creating a more rigorous and coherent data protection framework in the EU, put individuals in control of their own data and provide for greater legal and practical certainty for economic operators and public authorities. Data protection in the European Union is a fundamental right.

It is disappointing that, despite strong public opposition, the majority of the Ministers decided a softening of the data protection bill. The governments of some Member States want to allow companies and authorities to use data on consumer without their consent for other purposes as originally agreed. This goes clearly against the initial spirit of the bill”

Leave a Reply