The European Commission has announced that it is mounting a legal challenge in respect of the use of targeted online advertising in the UK. The challenge follows complaints which were made to the Commission in response to BT’s act of testing the technology on BT broadband users without their consent. The technology, which is the brainchild of a company called Phorm, enables internet service providers (ISPs) to profile what sites internet users visit so as to enable advertising companies more astutely to target their adverts on individual users. The Commission has taken the view that the UK has breached EU data protection laws by permitting the deployment of the technology in the absence of user consent. The Information Commissioner’s Office has previously stated that the use of the technology would be permissible if operated on the basis that users have opted in to the system. The Commission’s challenge raises real questions as to the legality of Google’s recently launched behavioural targeting system. See further my post on this system below.
Tag: internet
The Age of Internet Surveillance
With effect from today, all UK internet service providers (“ISP”) will be required to retain data relating to every email which is sent and every online telephone call which is made using their services. The data, which must be stored by ISPs for 12 months, will not include the content of the email or the call. It will however include the date, time, duration and routing of the online communication as well as information as to the internet subscriber or user. The obligation to retain this data is imposed under the Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009 (“the Regulations”). The regulations were enacted in order to bring into effect the provisions of the Data Retention EU Directive 2006/24/EC. The Directive was itself enacted in response to concerns that a lack of consistency of approach to data collection across Europe, particularly in the field of internet communications, was hampering the fight against crime, including international terrorism. The effect of the Regulations, which come into force today, is that the data retention principles which already apply to telecoms providers under the Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2007 will now also apply to internet providers. As well as retaining the communications data, the internet service provider must afford access to particular data where they are required to do so by law (regulation 7). They must also abide by certain principles relating to the protection and security of the data (regulation 6).