Industry Urges Review of Inconsistent Sector-Specific Data Protection Rules

London: John Giusti, Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA, today commented on the agreement reached by the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament on common text for the proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

“The GSMA supports efforts to establish appropriate principles to guide data protection and privacy in an increasingly digitally connected world. Data protection and privacy are fundamental to building trust and driving the uptake of new digital services by citizens across Europe.

“Although a single horizontal regulation that provides clear rules and procedures across sectors is a huge step forward in protecting European citizens’ privacy rights and data, there are a number of measures within the GDPR that need clarification.

“Importantly, the European Data Protection Board should work with national supervisory bodies across key sectors to provide further guidance on how to balance data protection and privacy compliance with economic growth and competitiveness, especially with regard to issues such as consent, children’s consent, big data, pseudonymisation and transfers of data to third countries. We also encourage the Board to work with national regulators to reduce bureaucracy on industry, in relation to the ‘one stop shop’ regime.

“The GDPR will be crucial to achieving a digital single market for Europe. To this end, the GSMA calls for legislators to address the inconsistencies between the existing ePrivacy Directive 2002/58/EC and the proposed GDPR. Legislation needs to ensure that consumers can enjoy consistent privacy standards and experiences, irrespective of the technologies, infrastructure, business models and data flows involved and regardless of who provides a service or where a company may be located.”

-ENDS-

About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with more than 250 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai and the Mobile 360 Series conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA

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