New EU Guidance on E-Mail Filtering

A new Opinion by the EU Working Party 29, calls into question use of many common filtering and tracking technologies. Many businesses use spam and anti-virus filtering tools, scan suspicious e-mail content, or track the receipt of e-mails to optimize marketing strategies. On February 21, 2006, representatives of the European Union¹ data protection authorities adopted an opinion paper that may severely limit the use of such techniques by "internet service providers" and "email service providers."² Those providers may be interpreted to encompass "true" ISPs, but also employers who wish to use virus and spam filters and police e-mail content, or even universities who want to monitor content when facilitating the use of electronic communications for students.