Cable Europe, ETNO, and GSMA call on Ministers on the ePrivacy Regulation

Wednesday 30 May 2018 | Public Consultation Response |

Cable Europe, ETNO, and GSMA call on Ministers on the ePrivacy Regulation image

Dear Ministers,

Last week, we all greeted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) taking effect as a new high standard for all players in the digital economy. Cable Europe, GSMA and ETNO’s members have made implementation of the GDPR their highest priority, since the protection of customer’s personal data is at the core of our industry’s business model.

However, the GDPR has not truly resolved the current regulatory imbalance between the
telecommunications industry and other players in the economy. As you know, telecom operators are currently still subject to national rules implementing the ePrivacy Directive, which restrict the way they can handle data generated and carried over their networks.

As active supporters of the Digital Single Market strategy, our members are the backbone of the European data economy. The surge of Internet traffic, mobile data traffic, and machine-to-machine connections that we are witnessing can only be sustained thanks to the continuous investment and innovation of the European providers of telecom networks and connectivity. As such, our members have the ambition to fully harness the opportunities of this data-driven revolution to create significant benefits for customers and society as a whole in many areas including service innovation, improvement to public transport and traffic congestion management, or reduced CO2 emissions.

Cable Europe, ETNO and GSMA had hoped that the long-awaited overhaul of the ePrivacy Directive could make that aspiration a reality. However, the European Commission’s proposal for an ePrivacy Regulation and the ensuing legislative debate have frustrated our expectations.

The draft Regulation has so far failed to bring the conditions for processing  communications metadata in line with the principles applicable to the processing of personal data in the GDPR. While our members entirely support the principle that unlawful interference with communications should be prohibited, this should not mean preventing telecommunications operators from offering innovative services, provided that sufficient safeguards are in place to prevent such interference.
The data economy is global and EU legislation should support European operators to compete – without compromising on confidentiality. As proposed by the Commission, the systematic and sole reliance on consent of the end-user risks hampering data analytics and Artificial Intelligence which are dependent on adequate datasets. The right balance has not yet been achieved and in October 2017, the European Parliament adopted a position that further exacerbates this missed opportunity.

We appreciate that Member States are taking time to thoughtfully deliberate and we value the work on the Regulation undertaken by the Council under the auspices of the Bulgarian Presidency. To facilitate the ongoing difficult discussion amongst Member States, we have regularly provided constructive input to the Council- including providing relevant use cases and technical explanations on how more flexibility for metadata processing can benefit directly our society and the competitiveness of our industry, while ensuring a high level of privacy.

As we approach the 8 June Telecommunications Council meeting, we urge Ministers to give a clear signal that rules should allow innovative use of metadata where it is appropriate and justified. To achieve this, we suggest to incorporate the GDPR’s risk-based approach, which makes the Regulation future-proof, by allowing further processing of metadata without consent for purposes compatible with the initial purpose for which the data were collected, subject to compulsory safeguards such as pseudonymisation. Such an approach in line with Article 6(4) GDPR balances the benefits of innovative services for society with the appropriate protection of privacy for consumers. More work is needed in this regard, since the currently proposed solutions around “statistical counting” are
likely to be interpreted too restrictively and would not allow for data analytics to take place in a variety of accountable business models.

We look forward to the outcome of the discussion at the 8 June meeting, and to continuing to work with the Council and future Austrian Presidency to show how telecom operators can process data in innovative ways while preserving confidentiality, respecting privacy, and building trust.

Matthias Kurth, Executive Chairman, Cable Europe
Lise Fuhr, Director General, ETNO
John Giusti, Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA

Continue reading: CE-ETNO-GSMA Letter to Ministers ePrivacy Regulation

Also read: The Proposed European ePrivacy Regulation: Use cases for enabling privacy-protective innovative products and services

For media inquiries: Olivier Lechien, PR Director, Europe,

+32 479 990163, [email protected]