Photo of Peta-Anne Barrow

The European Commission’s revised data protection framework proposals include provisions intended to encourage the use of data protection privacy seals, certification mechanisms and trust marks.  These provisions would allow data subjects to instantly assess the privacy standards applied by data controllers and processors, thereby providing the comfort that data subjects often seek.  The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (the “ICO”) supports the use of privacy seals and has issued an online survey to gather feedback on how privacy seals may be used to improve data protection compliance and customer privacy awareness.

On 25 January 2012, the European Commission published a proposed new data protection framework for the E.U. The new framework, unlike the current one, is to provide a consistent and harmonised set of rules for all 27 E.U. member states. One of the main objectives of the new framework is to better ensure that individuals know what is happening to their personal data. To this end, the European Commission is proposing to introduce the ‘right to be forgotten’.

The European Commission (the “EC”) has announced its anticipated comprehensive reform of EU data protection rules, intended to strengthen online privacy rights and boost Europe’s digital economy. The proposal is intended to update and modernize the principles enshrined in the 1995 Data Protection Directive. If approved, unlike the current rules which give each of the 27 member states of the EU (the “member states”) some flexibility as to how the 1995 Data Protection Directive is implemented in their jurisdiction, the new law would apply directly so that there would be an entirely uniform set of data protection standards across the EU.

Key changes include…