Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

WhatsApp, Gmail Roped Into Tougher EU Privacy Proposal (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the some-concerns dept.

Online messaging and email services such as WhatsApp, iMessage and Gmail will face tough new rules on how they can track users under a proposal presented by the European Union executive on Tuesday. From a report: The web players will have to guarantee the confidentiality of their customers' conversations and ask for their consent before tracking them online to serve them personalized ads. The proposal by the European Commission extends some rules that now only apply to telecom operators to web companies offering calls and messages using the internet, known as "Over-The-Top" (OTT) services, seeking to close a perceived regulatory gap between the telecoms industry and mainly U.S. Internet giants such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

4 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Good rules to play fair by victorsosa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    These are good rules example to play fair. Everybody need to start copying this law too. Big services need to guarantee the confidentiality of their customers' conversations

  2. Be careful what you wish for... by Mhrmnhrm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... Well, we'd love to comply with your potentially-lawful request and EU-search-warrant-equivalent, but in order to comply with your conversation confidentiality and privacy rules, we had to create encryption schemes designed from the very start to be unbreakable because we don't have the keys, nor a way to download them.

    --
    I suspect that one of these choices is incorrect. Correct.
    1. Re:Be careful what you wish for... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What's wrong with that? Privacy is much more important than the ability for law enforcement to read conversations, especially if creating that ability involves creating lots of potential for abuse.

  3. Re:Aren't there real problems in Europe to focus o by Schmorgluck · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We've already seen then commit numerous crimes, and even many serious and violent attacks that have resulted in the deaths of many innocent European citizens.

    Citation needed.

    I expect to be vilified for this, accused of shutting down the debate with that "citation needed" thing, but seriously, I couldn't care less. I reject the "post-factual" paradigm, I only accept debate based on actual facts, not fantasies nor distorted "could have been" stories.

    --
    There's nothing like $HOME