Nearly two years ago, the EU enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was the world’s strictest online privacy regulation. Since its enactment, Google has been the only company fined under the law, making many question its effectiveness. CEO of advertising company WPP said that GDPR empowered big tech companies rather than limited them, because the law gave them “the ability to collect and process the data,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Many believe this lack of enforcement is due to European governments not providing adequate resources to data protection agencies. In a survey of European privacy regulators, 70 percent of those surveyed reported having inadequate resources. Because of Europe’s lack of enforcement under the GDPR, it could undermine other efforts around the world to hold big tech accountable for privacy breaches. Read more here.
Members of the News/Media Alliance staff have contributed to this post.
