According to a 2016 study, the confidence of users in privacy and electronic communications is limited. Certain users even spoke of a feeling of legal insecurity when then make online purchases because their data is collected.

That is why on 10 January 2017, the European Commission published a proposal for a regulation to revise Directive 2002/58/EC, the Directive on privacy and electronic communications.

The proposed regulation involves the adoption and application of strict and equivalent rules in all European Union Member States as soon as it enters into force. Businesses must guarantee heightened data protection and reinforce the confidence of users by making all electronic communications confidential. The application of equivalent legal rules will thus reduce the risk of the use of date for malicious purposes.

Additionally, the processing and storage of data and use of unsolicited cookies will be subject to the user’s prior consent.

In effect, European authorities wish to put in place a better framework for publicity targeting procedures, by imposing a parametrization allowing each user of a software application to refuse to share his/her data with any third-party company (particularly with regard to instant messaging services/applications).

In the same spirit, each internaut should be able to decide in advance the level of protection he/she wishes to put in place when connecting to any internet navigator with respect to cookies and for all later connections, to replace the current system of pop-up banners for consenting to cookies at each connection to a site.

To a certain extent, what this parametrization proposal offers each internaut or application user is only the echo of Article 25 of the General Regulation on Data Protection which requires the protection of data from the start of personal data processing, and data protection by default.

In case of violation of these rules, the business concerned risks monetary and legal sanctions.

The initiative thus provides a simplified and secure space for electronic communications in Europe. To this this, it provides for the harmonization of EU rules on e-Privacy protection. Companies will thus benefit from stricter regulation in favor of the development of services and digital tools.

However, e-Commerce Europe’s criticism should be noted with respect to this new proposed regulation. While the European institution may have revealed a desire to block third-party cookies in Article 10 of its proposed regulation, the association criticizes an absence of simplification of EU rules regarding publicity messages unsolicited by the user as well as the lack of clarity in the rules on the use of cookies.

Work on this new regulation is thus still in progress.