Abstract EN:

For a long time, privacy had to be protected from the threat of the eyes and ears of others eager to intercept and reveal its secrets. Today, informations technologies offer monitoring possibilities which are infinitely more effective. The development of electronic communications has therefore given rise to considerable apprehension because it is susceptible to provide the State, employers and private compagnies with great quantities of information relating to private individuals, thus rendering the natural opacity of an individual's private life transparent and so excluding any possibility of secrecy or freedom in that case. In this context, the European Community wishes to avoid competition distortions within its internal market and to protect the fundamental rights of the individual. That is why Community harmonization has established common principles of personal data protection and privacy. However, the dual aim is proving difficult to attain, both in its formulation and in its implementation. Consequently, news forms of regulation are required. These new and very diverse forms materialize mainly through the intervention of the data protection authorities, the specific regulation of the electronic communications sector, self-regulation, co-regulation and technological regulation. What is also at stake is the place of the European Community on the international scene. In this respect, some specific formulas have been developed in order to reach an "adequate level of protection". This does not exclude the use of more traditional instruments such as the external agreements concluded by the Community with third party contries, or negotiations within the WTO.