Article 29 Working Party Has "Grave Concerns" About The Proposed e-Privacy Regulation

The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has adopted Opinion 01/2017 on the Proposed Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications. The draft Regulation was proposed by the European Commission in January 2017. In general, the Working Party welcomes the Commission's proposal. In particular, it likes the fact that the Commission has chosen a Regulation as the regulatory instrument, and it is in favour of extending the scope of the rules to cover all electronic communications providers, not just traditional telecoms providers. It also welcomes what it calls "the attempt" to modernise the rules applicable to tracking in the online world. However, the Working Party has four points of "grave concern" relating to: (i) "WiFi tracking"; (ii) analysis of content and metadata; (iii) tracking walls; and (iv) privacy by default regarding terminal equipment and software. In the Working Party's view, the proposed Regulation in its current form would lower the level