December 3rd, 2018 – Today, a coalition of more than 30 consumer groups, NGOs, and industry representatives have sent a letter to EU Ministers and the Council of the EU calling for the conclusion of the negotiations on the reform of the ePrivacy legislation.
Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting in the Transport Telecommunications and Energy Council, the signatories share concerns over the slow progress of the negotiations in the Council of the EU despite the repeated scandals that demonstrate the clear and urgent need to strengthen the privacy and security of electronic communications in the online environment.
“Industry and civil society groups are often portrayed as opposing sides in the debates on the ePrivacy reform. This letter shows that we agree on the need for this reform and its value for individuals and businesses in the Digital Single Market,” said Estelle Massé, Senior Policy Analyst at Access Now. “We urge Member States to advance the negotiations that have stagnated for months on end.”
In the letter, the diverse range of stakeholders argue that “the reform of the ePrivacy framework is necessary to deliver effective confidentiality and security of modern online communications, to ensure clarity of the legal framework, and to restore public trust in the digital economy.”
Together, the signatories of this letter represent individuals, consumers, and businesses in the online ecosystem, from search engines and email providers to secure cloud storage providers and privacy-friendly analytics firms, as well as identity management services and browsers. The vast majority of the industry groups that endorsed this letter are from the EU, showcasing the success of European innovators in the development of privacy-friendly services.
Link to the letter here.
For more information on the ePrivacy reform, see:
- Access Now’s position on the ePrivacy reform: https://www.accessnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Access-Now-ePrivacy-Directive-policy-paper.pdf
- The ePrivacy Directive: More than just a “cookie-law”: https://www.accessnow.org/eus-e-privacy-directive-just-cookie-law/