back to article Privacy? What privacy? EU's draft law on your data is useless, say digital rights orgs

Activists have leaked the latest draft of Europe’s planned data protection law – which is supposed to safeguard Europeans' personal information when in the hands of businesses and governments. The proposed rules have been agreed by the European Parliament. Now Euro nations' government ministers, who sit on the Council of the …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "internet browser settings could constitute consent for being tracked and profiled online"

    I smell lobbying...question is was this businesses or was it government agencies? That ties nicely with profiling citizens later on in the article.

    Just thinking aloud, if this was put in place and a government decided that all websites, or isps, based in the UK or whereever had to provide tracking data on what was visited by which IP at which time, whether in realtime or batched, would this be 'legitimate' if the above was set as yes? Despite the uproar that would come out of this - so they would certainly wrap it up in something else, like "Monitoring the digital integration of society to see how we can improve the infrastructure for a better, cleaner, digital future for you!"

  2. frank ly

    It would be interesting ....

    .... to find out the shareholdings and other financial interests (non-ex-directorships, etc) of the family members and close associates of the government ministers concerned. It would be interesting but probably a breach of privacy so it's not going to happen.

    1. KroSha

      Re: It would be interesting ....

      And probably "not in the public interest".

    2. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

      Re: It would be interesting ....

      There should be a legally binding requirement of full public disclosure about such interests for anyone taking public office, with severe criminal penalties for taking the piss.

    3. Someone Else Silver badge
      Coat

      @ frank ly -- Re: It would be interesting ....

      But...but...but..."Privacy is not an absolute right"! They said so themselves!

      Something about sauce, goose and a gander....

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    good for goose

    Let's apply it - as is - to all MEPs, everyone who works for the EU, and every MP and person working for every part of each national government that is a part of this process. If, in two years time, not a single complaint has been made about it, then and only then does it apply to everyone else.

    1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

      Re: good for goose

      Indeed.

      "The council said “the right to the protection of personal data is not an absolute right” in the text."

      I'm sure they will continue to say this when their own very personal and private data is on the line...

    2. nijam Silver badge

      Re: good for goose

      Excellent plan - I'd go further, though: after that first phase, the new rules are then extended to members of the police and security organisations for two more years, and so on - I'm sure we can all think of a few groups of deserving cases for a few further phases...

      1. Matt 21

        Re: good for goose

        While I agree with the principle I'm not sure why you're talking about MEPs. This "mangling" was done by the Council of Ministers, in other words, our government and members of other governments.

        In this case our (UK) government seems only too keen to do whatever it can to remove any rights from us.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

          1. Brusselsgeek

            Re: good for goose

            Clarification: MEPs have agreed that there should, in principle, be rules. They approved the creation of a law. They have not approved the council-mangled text and will in all likelihood fight it.

            1. Someone Else Silver badge
              Devil

              @ Brusselsgeek -- Re: good for goose

              They have not approved the council-mangled text and will in all likelihood fight it.

              Ya think? With Google bringing bags of Euros with them for a "friendly lunch" with key MEPs before the vote?

              /me is not holding my breath

          2. HOW many?

            Re: good for goose / Mangle proof rules

            'Fraid not.

            The legislative structure ain't set up that way.

            Not surprising most folk don't appreciate that ..... given the blackworks job so many of our own Guvvnmunt lot have done on the EU legislature, pretending they have no control.

            But it ain't exactly so.

  4. KroSha

    Some serious lobbying money has been spent here. I still say that the EP is a serious burden to Joe Public, except that most people don't know who their MEP is or what they do. Given that they dictate so much of our legislation, we need far more coverage on their activities and should be holding them to far higher standards.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Glasses needed

      Because you clearly didnt read the article. The burden here its not the EP, but "Now Euro nations' government ministers, who sit on the Council of the European Union, are tearing the text apart, and rewriting large chunks of it." instead. Got it?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Lobbying

    F*ck and double f*ck these morons!! This is what happens when all the stupid ministers of the EU got a meeting together, they take with them the proposals drafted for them by all the interested parties minus the common citizen! Do we need a war to be rid of these scumbags?

    1. Pseu Donyme

      Re: Lobbying

      In this context it occurred to me that these drafts should be put under version control with a public changelog so that we the people (through the press) could at least see which particular minister (country) or other entity is behind each tweak to a draft.

    2. HOW many?

      Re: Lobbying

      Are you doing this deliberately?

      Its just been said - Its NOT the EU.

      Its our own National Ministers up to their usual their hands in your pockets trickery.

      This is not rocket science. Are you inebriated or a Farage fan?

  6. David Pollard

    Write to your MP & MEP?

    I wonder how many will bother to prod them? It's public apathy that's the problem, just as much as the politicians who are supposed to serve.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I might be going out on a limb here.......

      Any legislation that tries to enact some clear and unambiguous privacy legislation:

      Such as:

      1) Anonymization.

      2) Rules of least privilege

      3) Individual right to consult and correct

      4) Automatic opt for data privacy, non distribution to third parties.

      5) Compartmentalization, no profiling or private data release without due process.

      In sum, what most sensible people and businesses would consider to be good, best-practice privacy policy....

      Will become a CLUSTER-FUCK of unimaginable proportions once the lobbyists, legislators and pointy headed bureaucrats get anywhere near it.

    2. Sarah Balfour

      Re: Write to your MP & MEP?

      My MP is Dom Grieve. I KNOW how much use writing to the cunt'll be.

      Small town England; no fucking point attempting to buck the status quo here. I'm living with the enemy, and there's no fucking escape. Most days I'm in too much pain to even THINK straight. Everything I'm FOR, they're AGAINST.

      Can we have some kinda mass drive to get weed legalised…? It's honestly the only thing that's gonna help me now. I can't recall the last time I actually SLEPT at night (or at any other time, come to that). It's even more exhausting when you've people on your case 24/7, constantly nagging you about petty shit - stuff that, in the scale of things, is so mind-numbingly trivial, that it doesn't even warrant a mention. Unless you're my mother. I need to be able to do stuff MY WAY,; I have reasons for mistrusting and distrusting the NHS, not least because most of what it espouses is utter tripe, but due to the way I have been treated (which my parents would say, if I told them, was entirely MY fault for "not conforming to the accepted standards of behaviour and carrying on" - I can hear the bitch saying those exact words as I type).

      THEY destroyed me; they are the reason that, as a chronological 40-something-year-old, I'm about as adult as your average 3-year-old. They have never - and will never - accept this, as far as they're concerned, they're perfect. As one Richard Ashcroft once opined "I was born a little damaged, man, look what they made…" (and things have to be REALLY bad for me to admit I even used to listen to him!).

      I've seen the interior of every nuthouse and every cop shop in every major - and not so major - city, from Newquay to Newcastle, Dover to Dumfries. Mother's had the quack try to risperidone me - fuck that shit; that's perfectly okay, it can't be at all dangerous because it's LEGAL (I have pointed out that it's only legal when prescribed), it's a MEDICINE, not a drug, because it's LEGAL. I made the mistake once of pointing out that they're both hardened drug addicts (my father gets through a bottle of wine a night, and my mother drinks at least 6 standard-sized mugs of coffee daily, and that both caffeine and ethanol are far more dangerous and damaging than anything currently prohibited). Perhaps if we began referring to it as 'trimethylxanthine', people would begin to see it differently (I've only ever seen it referred to as such in ingredients lists on bottles of snake oil diet pills).

      Ah well, they'll be up soon. Let another day of ceaseless bullying commence. I SWEAR I'm gonna end up doing 'em in, my mother at least. How DO you deal with minds that closed…?! Don't think I even need mention what bog rolls they read.

      If only the nation's foremost andlost eminent authority on controlled substances didn't have the unfortunate name of 'Nutt' - my father would have an absolute FIELD DAY with that! Anyone who challenges perceived wisdom is a "fucking crackpot".

      Okay, show's over, you can return to whatever you were doing now…

      Look what most people have done by my age…

  7. Kubla Cant

    Germany has suggested that consent given today should cover future uses of one's private data for “scientific” purposes

    Sounds unpleasantly reminiscent of Josef Mengele.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Legitimate interest"

    Legitimate interest is already one of the data protection principles and it's always been widely used to get around all the other principles.

    For example, consent is another of the data protection principles, but legitimate interest trumps it, so in most cases a data controller can argue a legitimate interest and therefore do what they want without your consent.

    Principle 8 - Transfer of data to unsafe countries outside the EEA. "That's okay big business, just use a contract that you can download from us, in which you promise to process data as if it was in the EEA and then you can process it in North Korea if you want!"

    The current DPA rules are basically a waste of time due to the number of loopholes, so the only thing that the laws achieve, is that they create a load of small print and bureaucracy.

  9. Someone Else Silver badge
    WTF?

    Say WHAT?!?

    The council said “the right to the protection of personal data is not an absolute right” in the text. “It must be considered in relation to its function in society and be balanced with other fundamental rights, in accordance with the principle of proportionality,” we're told.

    Translation: Your "personal data" is neither personal nor yours...is it ours!!!. And we can (and will, donchano) give it to whomever and whatever fat-ass corporation or TLA agency we think can further our personal goals of untold riches and absolute power.

    Assuming that these unnamed "ministers" live in a country where the populace can still vote, it would be incumbent upon said populace to vote to run the party of these said "ministers" out of office and into the dustbin of history where they so rightly belong.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Say WHAT?!?

      "Assuming that these unnamed "ministers" live in a country where the populace can still vote, it would be incumbent upon said populace to vote to run the party of these said "ministers" out of office and into the dustbin of history where they so rightly belong."

      The main problem there being that there are a limited number of possible candidates to vote for and most people will vote for the main parties, which results in one or other of the two main parties, both of whom are sucking from the same trough under the advice of the same civil servants.

  10. Lakanal

    EU data protection law is and always has been nonsense on stilts. Every protection of my public, non-confidential data is a limitation on your freedom to receive and publish information. Confidentiality is one thing, "privacy" (in the special EU non-private sense) is quite another.

  11. WeeJB

    If the information is passed to third parties, it could gain inaccuracies along the way. Also, part of data protection was the right to access and correct inaccurate information held. No one will know who has their data, whether it is accurate, and how long it may be held by third parties. Even without addressing the issue of what constitutes 'legitimate interest', this legislation, rather than strengthening data protection and privacy appears to be weakening it.

    Jennifer Betts

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