Messaging services could face tighter EU user data restrictions - bringing them in line with telecoms firms
The European Union is hoping to lock over-the-top messaging services like Skype and WhatsApp into agreements forcing them to ensure the confidentiality of user data.
The draft will be released January 2017
An EU security draft, accessed by Reuters, wants to bring these messaging services under the same umbrella as telecom providers, requiring them to “to guarantee the confidentiality of communications and obtain users' consent to process their location data”.
The new raft of regulation looks to more closely ensure that popular messaging services are correctly handling the data of the millions of EU users reliant upon them in a daily basis.
The proposal is set to be released in its entirety in January 2017.
The Drum's digital editor Ronan Shields analysed the proposed changes to EU privacy law (due in 2018), and how they will affect marketers here.