From Wired to the New York Times, every news platform has been reporting about the massive lobbying efforts against the data protection reform over the past few months. Vice-President of the EU Commission Viviane Reding has stated in the Telegraph that the proposed rules were subject to the most aggressive lobbying she has ever witnessed.

Thirty six civil rights and data protection organsations have just launched the European campaign portal www.privacycampaign.eu in support of better protection for European citizens' rights to privacy and data protection.

“This is our one opportunity to develop a strong legal framework, building trust and removing unnecessary red tape for business. We need a framework that is guided by clear, predictable legal principles and strong enforcement. Instead, we have an unprecedented wave of ill-informed, ill-advised and destructive corporate lobbying.

Following the recent vote, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) of the European Parliament has just published a final version of its “Opinion” (pdf) on the European Commission's proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation. The text was adopted with a small majority, underlining how controversial the dossier is.

While the Committee proposes leaving a few of the Commission's proposals untouched, the text shows the extent to which industry lobbying risks completely destroying the fundamental right to privacy and data protection.

After a year of working group meetings, the “CEO Coalition to make the Internet a better place for kids” produces its final documents on 4 February. The outcome of the project is a set of voluntary guidelines divided into five broad headings, ranging from “reporting tools” to “notice and takedown,” It is intended that this will be followed up by a meeting, in about six months, between Commissioner Kroes and the CEOs of the companies responsible. The meeting is designed to put pressure on the CEOs to fully implement the “voluntary” measures.

• An introduction to Data Protection
• EU governments keep increasing requests to Google for private data
• Finnish copyright law might be changed following crowdsourcing support
• German government intends to use FinFisher Spyware
• Slovenia has a net neutrality law
• Greater transparency and accountability of surveillance systems
• Kroes ignoring the problems on net neutrality?
• Recommended Action
• Recommended Reading
• Agenda

This is hopefully going to be our last report on the EU-funded Clean IT project. Since our last article, which was the trigger for quite some negative feedback in the international press, much has changed in the drafting documents of the project. On Wednesday 30 January, the participants meet for a final conference in Brussels in order to approve a final report (pdf) containing a list of recommendations (and lots and lots of white space).

Re-cap

What happened so far? In 2010, But Klaasen, from Dutch law enforcement, submitted a project proposal to the European Commission.

The United States authorities have produced another lobbying document to influence the European Union's decision making on European citizens' fundamental right to privacy and data protection.

Strangely, the document itself is not on headed paper and contains no authorship information. All of the lobbying documents produced so far have been in support of the positions taken by large US corporations and the adoption of US-style weak privacy protections in Europe.

• EU PNR directive gets funding before being adopted
• Irish EU Council Presidency proposes destruction of right to privacy
• Data Retention in Austria: Constitutional Court turns to the CJEU
• Major data leak at the Belgium railway company
• French Minister asks US company to uphold France's values
• State German DPA threatens to fine Facebook for opposing anonymity
• Is the Commission’s report on Swift agreement biased?
• ENDitorial: Questions on the draft Directive on Cybersecurity Strategy
• Recommended Reading
• Agenda