EDPS second Opinion on ePrivacy Directive review and security breach: privacy safeguards need to be strengthened

On 9 January, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) adopted an Opinion on the review of the Directive on Privacy and electronic communications, usually referred to as the ePrivacy Directive. This Opinion follows upon a first EDPS Opinion, as well as Comments, in which recommendations were made to help ensure that the proposed changes effectively provide for the best possible protection of personal data.

This Second Opinion came as a response to the Council's Common Position which, on a number of critical points, failed to endorse some of the data protection safeguards proposed by the European Parliament and the European Commission or previously recommended by the EDPS. The recommendations presented in this Opinion aim at streamlining some of the provisions of the Directive, while at the same time ensuring an adequate level of data protection and privacy.

The Opinion particularly focused on the provisions relating to the setting up of a mandatory security breach notification system for which the Supervisor believes there is still some room for improvement.