Phorm case sends the UK to the European Court of Justice
This article is also available in:
Deutsch: [ Vereinigtes Königreich kommt wegen Phorm vor den Europäischen Gerichtshof | http://www.unwatched.org/node/2250]
The European Commission announced that it has referred the UK to the
European Court of Justice for an improper implementation of EU data
protection rules, following several complaints in the Phorm case.
The Commission received complaints from the UK citizens about Phorm that
worked by checking out the web traffic between an ISP client and the sites
it visits.
This form of behavioural advertising by ISPs (targeted advertising based on
prior analysis of users’ internet traffic) was reported by
EDRi-member Open Rights Group and others NGOs to the UK Data Protection
Authority – Information Commissioner’s Office.
British Telecom ran in 2006 and 2007 two secret trials of deep-packet
inspection technology on its broadband customers, without informing them.
The European Commission started the legal action against the UK in April
2009 and sent another warning in October 2009 asking the British authorities
to properly implement the Data Protection Directive and the ePrivacy
Directive.
Now, the Commission has referred UK to the European Court of Justice for
failing to “ensure the confidentiality of the communications and related
traffic data by prohibiting unlawful interception and surveillance” and to
implement in the UK law the definition of consent as the “freely given,
specific and informed indication of a person’s wishes”.
Digital Agenda: Commission refers UK to Court over privacy and personal data
protection (30.09.2010)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/1215&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
EU takes Britain to court over online data protection (30.09.2010)
http://euobserver.com/22/30935
EU taking UK to court for privacy deficiencies highlighted by Phorm
(30.09.2010)
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2010/eu-taking-uk-to-court-for-privacy-deficiencies
EDRi-gram: UK: Phorm threat (28.01.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.2/phorm-uk