Dear all,
I wish you a Happy New Year (though it's not so new anymore)!
This week I had the opportunity to attend an event in Brussels which gained quite some media attention. Jan-Philipp Albrecht, a German Green MEP and rapporteur for for the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee
(LIBE) of the European Parliament, presented his amendments to the Data Protection
Regulation Draft proposed by the European Commission:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/libe/pr/922/922387/922387en.pdf
This enormous text has also been stripped down to ten key points:
http://www.janalbrecht.eu/uploads/pics/data_protection_English.pdf
The Regulation shall replace the pre-Internet Data Protection Directive
(1995). With this reform the EU is trying "to establish a comprehensive
approach to data protection, to strengthen online privacy rights and to
do away with the current fragmentation of 27 different national data
protection laws which are costly and burdensome for businesses operating
on Europe's single market". For further details, see yesterday's press
release by the European Commission:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-4_en.htm?locale=en
The commission's proposal was facing the "biggest lobbying campaign in the world ever", as Joe McNamee, CEO of European Digital Rights (EDRI) has put it. Obviously, the strenghtening of users' rights and the far stricter rules for data controllers run counter the interests of companies like Facebook and Google. If personal data of individuals in the EU is handled, the Regulation will also apply to companies which are not established in the Union. To put it bluntly: It could even affect charities in San Francisco.
Quite worrysome for the Wikimedia movement was the Commission's initial proposal for a "right to be forgotten" (Art. 17), a general guarantee for data subjects to get their personal data erased, if they didn't give their explicit permission. Lacking a clear-cut, consensual definition of "personal data", even the birth date of a Hollywood actress could be handled like that.
For a volunteer project like Wikpedia based on free licenses, the "reasonable steps" to inform even third parties about personal data which has to be erased (foreseen in Art.17.2), didn't seem realistic at all. Besides, the exemptions or derogations from that rule (laid out in Art. 80) were restricted to the processing of personal data for journalistic or artistic purposes only.
According to the rapporteur's amendments, freedom of expression must be far better balanced against the foggy "right to be forgotten". Now, Art. 80 (in connection with the new Art. 17.2a) postulates the accordance with the Europan Convention of Human Rights which makes sure that the conflicting goods (privacy vs. information) are carefully weighed.
Of course, the political gaming is just about to begin. Various Commitees and shadow rapporteurs will have their say in order to draft a compromise. Besides, the whole time line for the legislative process (so-called "Trilogue" between Commission, Parliament and Council) is tough. Most of the European parties don't have any interest in making data protection a major topic during the next EU election campaign in 2014. Together with lokal Wikipedians in Brussels and NGO collegues, we will keep an eye on the further process.
Best wishes to all,
Jan
--
Jan Engelmann
Leiter Politik & Gesellschaft
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Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Obentrautstr. 72
10963 Berlin
Telefon 030 - 219 158 26-0
www.wikimedia.de
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