Activities of Axel VOSS related to 2018/2855(RSP)
Legal basis opinions (0)
Amendments (37)
Amendment 2 #
Citation 13
– having regard to the OpinionGuidelines of the Article 29 Working Party of 3 October 2017 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal dataAutomated individual decision- making and Profiling for the purposes of Regulation 2016/6791; 1 ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/docum ent.cfm?doc_id=49826
Amendment 3 #
Citation 13 a (new)
– having regard to the two sets of written replies to questions that were left unanswered at the meeting between EP group leaders and Facebook CEO Zuckerberg published by Facebook on 23 May 20181 respectively 04 June 20182; 1 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/the- president/en/newsroom/answers-from- facebook-to-questions-asked-during- mark-zuckerberg-meeting 2 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/resources /library/media/20180604RES04911/20180 604RES04911.pdf
Amendment 4 #
Citation 13 b (new)
– having regard to Commission Recommendation (EU) 2018/234 of 14 February 2018 on enhancing the European nature and efficient conduct of the 2019 elections to the European Parliament1 and Commission Recommendation of 12 September 2018 on election cooperation networks, online transparency, protection against cybersecurity incidents and fighting disinformation campaigns in the context of elections to the European Parliament2; and the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Securing free and fair European elections3. 1 OJ L 45, 17.2.2018, p. 40–43 2 C(2018) 5949 final 3 COM(2018) 637 final
Amendment 5 #
Citation 13 c (new)
– having regard to the proposal from the Commission for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 as regards a verification procedure related to infringements of rules on the protection of personal data in the context of elections to the European Parliament1. 1 COM(2018) 636 final/2
Amendment 6 #
Citation 13 d (new)
– having regard to the Commission guidance on the application of Union data protection law in the electoral context1. 1 COM(2018) 638 final
Amendment 8 #
Recital A
A. whereas investigative journalism uncovered and made public major data leaks of Facebook user data in relation to the access that was granted by Facebook to third party applications and the subsequent abuse of this data for electoral campaigning efforts and other personal data breaches ofinfringements of personal data rules regarding personal data held and gathered by major social media companies that came to light afterwards;
Amendment 9 #
Recital B
B. whereas theseis misuse of personal data breaches impacted citizens across the globe, including European citizens and non- European citizens residing on European Union territory, whereas various national parliaments conducted hearings, inquiries and published findings on the matter;
Amendment 12 #
Recital C
C. whereas theseis misuse of personal data breaches occurred before the application of the new General Data Protection Regulation and for an extended period of time; whereas the companies concerned were however in breach offringing EU data protection law applicable at that time, particularly Directive 95/46/EC and Directive 2002/58/EC;
Amendment 15 #
Recital J
J. whereas Facebook refused to delegate the staff members at the appropriate technical and responsibility level and having the necessary technical expertise and knowledge requested by the Committee Chairs concerned and sent public policy team members to all three hearings instead; whereas information provided bythe Facebook representatives during the hearings lacked precision onprovided examples regarding the concrete and specific measures taken to improve transparency and ensure full compliance with EU data protection law and was rather of general nature; whereas these oral testimonies were supplemented by two sets of written replies in relation to the questions which were not addressed by the Facebook CEO during the CoP hearing;
Amendment 16 #
Recital M
M. whereas the Chair of the European Data Protection Board highlighted that the Facebook / Cambridge Analytica case occurred before the entering into force of the GDPR, and thus the EDPB is not the leading authority in this case but rathersystem of Lead Supervisory Authority under the General Data Protection Regulation does not apply and the investigations were led by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office;
Amendment 17 #
Recital N
N. whereas Facebook accepted and agrehas admitted that it entered into a contract with an app developer that openly announced theywithout having conducted a prior check of its terms and conditions, which reserved the right for the latter to disclose personal data to third parties; whereas this oversight had grave consequences and such practice was already illegal under the oldthen applicable data protection law;
Amendment 18 #
Recital O
Amendment 19 #
Recital P
P. whereas the EDPB indicated thast already received over 3around 100 cross-border cases which it vowed to investigate very carefully according to the rules ofare being dealt with under the consistency mechanism under the GDPR; whereas it coordinates the actions of national data protection authorities in order to ensure a common approach of enforcement of EU data protection law;
Amendment 20 #
Recital Q
Q. whereas Facebook, a signatory to the Privacy Shield, has confirmed that the personal data of 2,up to 2.7 million EU citizens were among those improperly used by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica;
Amendment 27 #
Recital Zc
Z. c whereas data analysis and algorithms increasingly impact on the information made accessible to citizens; whereas such techniques, if misused have the potential to improve the online experience of users but , may endanger fundamental rights to information as well as media freedom and pluralism if they are misused;
Amendment 28 #
Recital Zd
Zd whereas algorithmic accountability and transparency is essential to ensure theit is important to provide individuals with possibilities to obtain proper information and to gain a clear understanding of individuals about the processing of their personal data; whereas itplatforms should mean implementing technical and operational measures that ensure transparency, the non- discrimination through automated decision- making and ban the calculating of probabilities of individual behaviour; whereas transparency should give individuals meaningful information about the logic involved, the significance and the envisaged consequences; whereas this should include information about the data used for training big data analytics and allow individuals to understand and monitor the decisions affecting thems well as transparency concerning the logic involved, the significance and the envisaged consequences thereof;
Amendment 35 #
Paragraph 4
4. Emphasises the need for much greater algorithmic accountability andscientific and ethical standards for algorithms to help reap the benefits of this technology while ensuring trust in its functioning; stresses that transparency with regard to data processing and analytics by the private and public sectors and any other actors using data analytics, as an essential tool to guarantee that the individual is should be enhanced, as individuals should be appropriately informed about the processing of their personal data;
Amendment 37 #
Paragraph 5
5. Takes the view that the digital age requires electoral laws to be adapted to this new digital reality and suggests Member States introduce an obligatthat conventional (“off-line”) electoral safeguards, such as rules applicable to political communications during election periods, transparency of and limits to electoral spending, respect fory system of introduce an obligatory system of digital imprints for electronic campaigning and advertisingilence periods and equal treatment of candidates should also apply online. Member States should introduce an obligatory system of digital imprints for electronic campaigning and advertising and implement the Commission’s Recommendation aiming at enhancing the transparency of paid online political advertisements and communications. Any form of political advertising should include easily accessible and understandable information on the publishing organisation and who is legally responsible for spending so that it is clear who sponsored campaigns, similar to existing requirements for printed campaign materials currently in place in various Member States; Citizens of the Union should be able to easily recognise online paid political advertisements and communications and the party, foundation or organisation behind them;
Amendment 43 #
Paragraph 7
7. Recommends all online platforms to distinguish, to the extent possible, political uses of their online advertising products from their commercial uses;
Amendment 47 #
Paragraph 9
9. BelievStresses that profiling for political and electoral purposes, as, pursuant to EU data protection law, it refers to political or philosophical opinions, should be prohibited and is of the opinion that social media platforms should monitor and actively inform authorities if such behaviour occur must take place in compliance EU data protection law, in particular the specific rules on processing of sensitive personal data such as political or philosophical opinions;
Amendment 54 #
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Welcomes the package presented by the Commission on 12 September 2018 regarding preparations for the European elections;
Amendment 55 #
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11 b. Calls on the Member States to implement the Commission’s Recommendation on free and fair European elections, which highlights key steps to further enhance the efficient conduct of the 2019 European elections and apply the same principles in the conduct of other elections at national level;
Amendment 56 #
Paragraph 11 c (new)
11 c. Calls for the swift adoption of the proposal of the Commission amending Regulation 1141/2014/EU on European political parties and foundations, to strengthen the tools available to regulators to prevent misuse of data in the context of European Elections;
Amendment 57 #
Paragraph 11 d (new)
11 d. Encourages Member States to set up the national election cooperation networks of relevant authorities, as referred to in the Recommendation of the Commission, in order to quickly detect potential threats to elections, exchange information and best practices and ensure swift and well-coordinated responses;
Amendment 60 #
Paragraph 12
12. Is of the opinion that if companies fail to agree and implement such a Code of Conduct on ethical campaigning,Welcomes, in this regard, the Code of Practice on Disinformation1 unveiled on 26 September 2018 by representatives of major online platforms and the advertising industry; believes that the wide range of self-regulatory standards and identified best practice contained therein will contribute to enhanced transparency in political advertising, increased closure of fake accounts and more effective demonetization of purveyors of disinformation; calls on the signatories of the Code to swiftly start implementing the agreed actions and to promote the Code across the industry with a view to encourage other companies to join, thereby increasing its impact; is of the opinion that if companies fail to implement the Code of Practice the European Commission should introduce regulation to make such ethical rules compulsory; 1 https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single- market/en/news/code-practice- disinformation
Amendment 62 #
Paragraph 15
15. Stresses that social media platforms are not merely passive platforms that only group user generated content but highlights that technological developments have widened the scope and role of such companies by introducing algorithm based advertising and content publication, concludes that this new role should be reflected in the regulatory field;
Amendment 65 #
Paragraph 17
17. Takes note of the privacy improvements that Facebook has undertaken after the Facebook/ Cambridge Analytica scandal, but recalls that Facebook promised to hold a full internal audit of which the European Parliament has not yet been informed andis still waiting to be informed about the results of the full internal audit promised by Facebook during the hearings; recommends that Facebook make substantial modifications that would also affect the core business model andto take the audit seriously and to act on its results, including by modifying aspects related to the structure of itsthe platform;
Amendment 72 #
Paragraph 18
18. Urges Facebook to allow and enable ENISA and the EDPB, within the limits of their respective mandates, to carry out a full and independent audit of its platform investigating data protection and security of user personal data and to present the findings of such anthis audit to the EC, EP and national parliaments; such an exerciseuropean Commission, the European Parliament and national parliaments; believes that such an audit should also be carried for other major platforms;
Amendment 73 #
Paragraph 19
19. Urges social media platforms - in accordance with the Code of Practice on Disinformation - to label content shared by bots and to follow in this regardsapply transparent rules for this purpose, to speed up the process of removing fake accounts and to comply with court orders to provide details of those creating fake or defamatory content;
Amendment 76 #
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21 a. Calls on Member States to adapt the electoral rules to online campaigning including transparency on funding, silence periods and the role of the media and disinformation;
Amendment 84 #
Paragraph 24
24. Takes the view that data protection authorities should have the same, if not morbe provided with adequate funding to build up the same technical expert knowledge as those organisations under their scrutiny. Suggests this objective could be reached by introducing funding by a levy on the sector concerned;
Amendment 88 #
Paragraph 27
27. Notes that the misuse of personal data affects the fundamental rights of billions of people around the globe; considers that the GDPR and the e-Privacy Directive provide for the highest standards of protection; regrets that Facebook decided to move 1.5 billion non-EU users out of the reach of the protection of the GDPR and the e-Privacy Directive;urges all online platforms to apply the GDPR standards (and the e-privacy) to all their services, regardless of where they are offered, as high standard of protection of personal data is increasingly seen as a major competitive advantage;
Amendment 90 #
Paragraph 28
Amendment 92 #
Paragraph 29
Amendment 96 #
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32 a. Calls on the Member States to take measures to address the risks posed to the security of network and information systems used for the organisation of elections.
Amendment 97 #
Paragraph 32 b (new)
32 b. Member States should engage with third parties, including media, online platforms and information technology providers, in awareness raising activities aimed at increasing the transparency of elections and building trust in the electoral processes.
Amendment 100 #
Paragraph 33
33. Is of the opinion Eurojust should urgently initiate, in cooperation with Member States authorities a special investigation into the alleged misuse of the online political space by foreign forces; calls on the Commission to swiftly come up with the necessary proposals to enlarge the competences of EPPO to include prosecution of crimes against electoral infrastructure;