The UK, Austria, Finland and Sweden have issued a paper which
sets out joint proposals for amending the EU Data Protection
Directive. The proposals, which “aim to help the Commission in its
consideration of the changes that are needed to the Directive”, are
in addition to any that each Member State may suggest in its own
name.
Among the proposals is one that would clarify the parameters of when sensitive personal data can and cannot be processed. It points out that, currently, there is ambiguity as to whether or not a person’s image is protected as sensitive personal data, since it will reveal the ethnic or racial origin of a person, as could their name.
The paper recognises that effective data protection is essential to the function of the single market. However it points out that the purpose of data protection rules “is not to prevent the processing of personal data”, but to protect individual privacy without restricting the processing needed to deliver the services that a “technologically sophisticated society demands.”
According to the paper, the proposed amendments seek to achieve a better balance between these two requirements without weakening the protection afforded to data subjects by the Directive, and to remove unnecessary and costly “bureaucratic requirements.” .
