Here’s some powerful stuff from Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for online privacy.
It’s worth reading the whole speech, but here are some highlights:
– ‘Without privacy, consumers will not trust the online world. And without trust, the digital economy cannot reach its full potential.’
– ‘I want to see the principles of transparency, fairness and user control running through everything. Transparency so that citizens know exactly what the deal is. Fairness so that citizens are not forced into sharing their data. And user control so that citizens can decide – in a simple and effective manner – what they allow others to know. Those are key elements of the EU’s ongoing review of data protection law, which should lead to a legislative proposal later this year.’
– ‘The Commission will use its full powers against Member States that delay.’
– ‘users should be able to know, and control, when and to whom they give their information and how it will be used.’
– ‘DNT is simple: users can instruct their device or application to accompany all network requests with an indication that they do not want to be tracked. Service providers need to react to such explicit requests.’
– ‘I urge all interested parties to come to the standardisation table. And I challenge you to agree a DNT standard by June 2012.’
That all adds to a powerful statement of intent, to go along with the many others emerging in the personal data space. Needless to say, we take the view that putting powerful data services in the hands of individuals can both enable the above intents to be deployed, but also do so in such a way as to minimise the downsides for organisations.
We’ll have more to say on Do Not Track over the next few months.
