00:39 – Data protection – Internet giants seem not to respect European regulation

The rules for the protection of personal data of a series of Internet giants such as Google, Facebook, Apple or Amazon do not seem to fully meet the requirements of the new European regulations. This is the conclusion in a study of the European Consumer Platform (BEUC) and the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. The privacy protection regulations of fourteen popular digital companies that have have been studied still have a "wide margin of progress" to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which entered into force in the European Union on 25 May. This reform requires the explicit agreement of the European citizen for the conservation and use of his personal data. All institutions, organizations and companies that use such data must apply for this agreement. However, none of the companies studied would apply a privacy policy that fully complies with the requirements of the GDPR. The study points to breaches in the information provided to the user, the lack of solicitation of agreement for the processing of personal data or language too vague and imprecise. "This is very worrying," said Belgian Monique Goyens, BEUC's Executive Director. It is calling for an investigation by the competent authorities and is preparing itself to forward the study to the European Data Protection Board, set up recently to ensure the application of the GDPR. For their study, BEUC and UIE used an automated search tool. Such an instrument of artificial intelligence is an important contribution to check texts often so long and complex that infractions would go unnoticed, according to Ms. Goyens. (Belga)

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