European Commission Response
Just wanted to update you with an important letter received from the European Commission which confirms;
Quote:
"Privacy and the protection of personal data are fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and also protected by the European Convention on Human Rights and the related instruments of the Council of Europe, to which all EU Member States are signatories. Specific EU law provisions concerning privacy and data protection in the electronic communications sector are laid down in Directive 2002/58/EC on privacy and electronic communications (ePrivacy Directive), which specify and complement for this sector the general personal data protection principles defined in Directive 95/46/EC (Data Protection Directive).
In particular Member States are to ensure the confidentiality of communications and related traffic data through national legislation. They are required to prohibit interception or surveillance of communications and the related traffic data by persons other than the users without the consent. Traffic data may only be processed for certain defined purposes (eg billing) and for a limited period. The subscriber must be informed about such processing. Additional processing requires anonymisation or prior consent of the subscriber or user.
As regards the enforcement of these provisions, the ePrivacy and Data Protection Directives require Member States, through their national law, to ensure the availability of adequate judicial remedies as well as to establish liability of data controllers for the damage caused and to provide for sanctions in case of infringements. The supervisory authorities designated by the Member States must be endowed with investigatory powers, effective powers of intervention and the power to engage in legal proceedings. They must also hear claims lodged by any person regarding processing of personal data.
The responsibility for the enforcement of national legislation transposing EU Directives lies with the competent national authorities. The Commission is following the statements by the UK authorities, such as the Information Commissioner's Office, regarding Phorm and expects them to investigate any complaints raised with regard to the deployment of Phorm technology by ISPs.
The Commission is currently in contact with the UK authorities to clarify, in particular, the actions of the competent national authorities with regard to the users' complaints about trials of the Phorm technoogy by BT in 2006 and 2007, as well as the position of the UK authorities regarding the planned future deployment of the Phorm technology, in particular the way in which it is planned to obtain the users' consent. The Commission will continue to follow this case and take appropriate action, should the need arise, to ensure that the relevant EU law is effectively implemented by the UK authorities on this matter.
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They go on to mention that EU citizens have the right to submit a formal complaint to the EC if a member state fails to apply European Community Law.
A complaint form is available on the European Commission web site;
http://ec.europa.eu/community_law/yo...s_forms_en.htm.
I'm going to write to my (Labour) MP momentarily to ask, if he considers all avenues with the ICO are exhausted, whether such a complaint is now necessary.