Title: PRIVACY AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTIVE 2002/58

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive states in its preamble (considerans 30) “systems for the provision of electronic communications networks and services should be designed to limit the amount of personal data necessary to a strict minimum. Any activities related to the provision of the electronic communications service that go beyond the transmission of a communication and the billing thereof should be based on aggregated traffic data that cannot be related to subscribers or users. Where such activities cannot be based on aggregated data, they should be considered as value added services for which the consent of the subscriber is required”.

This directive does not only offer protection to natural persons; also legal persons enjoy the attributed rights (article 1.2.). The directive distinguishes traffic data and location data in electronic communications (article 2). It contains provisions on security and confidentiality of the electronic communication services (and networks). It also refers explicitly to cookies and related technologies. Cookies are a powerful tool to track, monitor and profile people.