ePrivacy and its impact on electronic communication

If you haven't heard of ePrivacy yet, that's okay because it's going to change once and for all today. The essence of ePrivacy is to protect users, who must be able to knowingly consent to electronic communications providers collecting data about them.

ePrivacy Regulation is The Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications and will boldly complement the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. This regulation will bring about fundamental changes in the practical processing of personal data. Just as the GDPR has taken the form of a European regulation, so too will ePrivacy.

The current regulation of the ePrivacy Directive applies only to traditional telecommunications operators. Under the new rules, there will also be significant changes on the part of service providers such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Gmail, iMessage and Viber. Privacy will be guaranteed not only for content, but also for metadata such as time and location of the call.

What happens if the user does not give consent to the processing of this data? Then the data will have to be anonymized or outright deleted. Again, an exception will probably be made if the data is necessary for the actual operation of the service or billing.

Do you need advice on the processing of personal data? Do you know all the conditions under which you can keep the data in question? If not, we would be happy to work with our team to advise you.