Privacy and electronic communication

Electronic communication creates large amounts of sensitive personal data (metadata), which allows determining the patterns of behavior (consumer habits, etc.), and the circle of personal contacts, due to which access to them is considered far more intrusive, compared to intercepting voice communication. The use of smartphones, tablets, and other devices that are constantly connected to the Internet (often through the use of wireless networks “Wi-fi”) contributed to the enormous inflation of sensitive data in the online space, which increased the risks of violating the rules of personal data protection. In order to reduce cyber risks, it is necessary to follow the following guidelines:

• placing HTTP cookies on devices requires prior consent from the subscriber or the user;
• the provider of the publicly available electronic communications service must delete or anonymize the traffic data that refer to the subscribers and users of the service, and also when they are no longer needed for the transmission of the communication;
• traffic data can be processed for marketing of electronic communications services or for providing value-added services with prior consent;
• the use of e-mail in direct marketing is allowed only if the subscribers or the users have previously given their consent;
• if the contact details via e-mail of the user are used for direct marketing of products or services similar to those previously purchased, consent will not be required;
• the recording of communication and related traffic data (metadata) is allowed if it is performed in accordance with the lawful business operations in order to provide evidence of a commercial transaction or some other business communication (e.g.: an insurance company records the telephone conversation with the car user insurance that reports a traffic accident).

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