The European Commission (EC) is working out how to speed up decision making on time-sensitive data privacy investigations, justice commissioner Didier Reynders said.

The breach of personal information from 533m Facebook accounts in recent weeks is an example of procedures probably taking too long.

Under the current set up, the EC has to ask the Irish data protection authority (DPA) to talk with Facebook’s EU headquarters in Ireland to see what the possible remedies are. If no resolution is found, then the union can “go further with actions”, he said at an industry conference.

“It’s may be long, so we need to think about some kind of fast-track,” he added.

He ruled out changes to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), saying member states need to invest in technical, financial and human resources in their DPAs.

“I have many discussions with the president of the European Data Protection Board [EDPB] for better coordination within the EDPB,” he was quoted as saying by public policy-politics news website Politico.

PrivSec Global

Register to PrivSec Global and hear industry leaders discuss the latest developments, strategies and insights across data protection, privacy and security. 

Must see sessions include:

  • Keynote - Max Schrems - 24 June at 4pm BST

  • Third Party Risk Management under GDPR: Ownership and Risks, Fines and Solutions - 22 June at 2pm BST

  • Managing Cybersecurity in Digital Transformation Projects - 23 June at 10am BST

  • Building Security Teams panel: The Increasing Importance of DEI in the Recruiting Process - 24 June at 7am BST

Register now

 

Topics