What is ePrivacy Regulation and Its Impact on Financial Services?

The Next Wave of Data Protection – the ePrivacy Regulation & its Impact on Financial Services

Firms still struggle with the implementation of the GDPR and the increasing number of fines is a testament to that. And those that seem to have dodged the bullet so far, the next one seems on its way. The ePrivacy Regulation promises to bring more challenges to the financial services industry that is still struggling with the first wave of new data protection regulations. Jochen Heussner of Planet Compliance explains what we can expect and what it means for financial institutions.

What’s the ePrivacy Regulation & why do we need more data protection rules?

What’s the rationale behind more data protection regulations if the GDPR has not even been around for a year? Well, initially a large of the rules of the current draft of the ePrivacy Regulation was intended to be part of GDPR but was shot down in early discussions. But the need to address the elements that were not covered in the GDPR and the necessity to update the existing framework that started to be rather out-dated remained.

The ePrivacy Regulation focuses on the specific uses of electronic communication such as email, SMS, cookies, and device fingerprinting as well as the integrity of the information itself. In that sense, the ePrivacy regulation is an enhancement of the GDPR since it covers the use of personal data as regulated under GDPR in the form of electronic communication like an email.

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ePrivacy Regulation is not only an Extension of the GDPR The new regulation aims to remove these differences since it will be directly applicable across the Union, which means the same level of data protection for all. It extends the scope to new communication services like Apple’s Facetime, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger that have long overtaken traditional messaging services. The ePrivacy Regulation covers both content and metadata of electronic communications, which highlights the value in terms of privacy of information like the place and time of a call or message.

So, the bottom line is that there are a number of variables to consider that will likely further delay the coming into force of the new regulation. We will also see additional changes that might water down the current obligations. What is sure though is that the ePrivacy Regulation will be introduced at some point in the not all too far future. For financial institutions, this means that they will need to try to find holistic solutions. For more details visit our website.

Source: https://www.shieldfc.com/ 03