Tech Industry Attacks Unbalanced and Restrictive New EU Data Rules

The EU's relentless obsession with restricting data access in order to protect ever greater swaths of personal information online would be on the verge of becoming comical - if it weren't so damaging.

The suspicion remains that this evermore restrictive approach would be considerably less comprehensive if the companies affected were primarily European rather than American.

That said, the broader and potentially more lasting damage is to the global pursuit of knowledge and the growth it stimulates. JL

Duncan Robinson reports in the Financial Times:

The new regime “fails to strike the proper balance between protecting citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy and the ability for businesses in Europe to become more competitive”.
Business groups have lined up to attack the European Union’s strict new data protection rules, and the threat of multimillion euro fines for companies that break them.Under terms agreed by Brussels on Tuesday, companies will be forced to pay 4 per cent of their global turnover in fines if they breach regulations that give consumers more say over how their data are used.Among the measures are new requirements to report data breaches within three days and tighter rules on how businesses use personal details to “profile” their customers.

But Digital Europe — a body that represents Google, Apple and IBM — said the new regime “fails to strike the proper balance between protecting citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy and the ability for businesses in Europe to become more competitive”.

Even companies not based in the EU will be beholden to the rules if they have customers based within the bloc — which led US business lobby group Amcham to criticise the deal, arguing that it would stymie fast-growing global industries, such as data analysis.
It said: “Amcham EU’s members take the right to privacy very seriously and we are concerned that the agreed text on General Data Protection Regulation falls short of striking a balance between stimulating innovation and protecting personal information.”
This week’s reforms represent an attempt to update the EU’s rules on privacy, which dated back to 1995 — three years before Google was founded and when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was still in high school. Proposals had been working their way around Brussels and Strasbourg since 2012.

Despite this drawn out process, it took a last-minute lobbying push by big technology groups such as Facebook to water down a ban on companies handling data from under-16s without parental consent. National governments will now be able to reduce the age at which personal data may be used to 13, if they wish.

Facebook, which has been embroiled in a series of data protection fights with regulators across Europe, has issued cautious support for the regulation, arguing that it will clarify which data protection authorities have jurisdiction over a company.

The new rules will give businesses legal certainty by creating one common data protection standard across Europe - Jan Philipp Albrecht, Green MEP

In effect, it creates a “one-stop shop” for companies — making them beholden only to the data protection authority where they have their European base. However, under a compromise, people from different countries will still be able to complain to their home regulator, which will then raise the matter with the company’s “one-stop” regulator.
“Having a single set of rules to protect Europeans’ personal data while creating opportunities for growth and innovation is important for people in Europe and the European economy,” said a spokesperson for Facebook.

Critics had worried that this new system would overwhelm regulators in certain countries, such as Ireland, which are home to the European operations of many US internet groups.

But Jan Philipp Albrecht, the Green MEP who helped draft the law, dismissed business groups’ fears as overblown.
“The new rules will give businesses legal certainty by creating one common data protection standard across Europe,” said the German MEP. “This implies less bureaucracy and creates a level playing field for all business on the European market.”