Digital Services Act: Anonymity on the Internet?

The EU Parliament has presented a revised draft of the Digital Services Act, which among other things provides for a significant restriction of tracking options on the Internet. However, the draft, which is in principle privacy-friendly, aims at the same time at de-anonymization in the pornographic area.

Free access even without tracking

The draft law presented by the EU Parliament provides for free access to Internet sites – even without tracking. Models according to which users must agree to tracking in order to be allowed to use a site would thus be excluded in principle. Only “fair and reasonable” alternative access would be possible. It is not clear exactly what is meant by this; it would have to be clarified whether paid access, which many major newspapers currently offer as an alternative to tracking, would meet the requirements. In any case, the display of advertising without tracking is envisaged as an alternative.

It is also planned that targeting based on the categorization of vulnerable groups should be prohibited. The same applies to the processing of data on political opinion, ideological conviction and sexual orientation for advertising purposes. Data on minors should also not be processed for this purpose.

Another change concerns the accessibility of the opt-out options: Rejecting tracking should be “neither more difficult nor more time-consuming” than consenting – which is generally not the case today.

Petition for anonymity on the Internet – with restrictions

Overall, the draft is thus directed against the increasing tracking of users, which is ubiquitous today and forms the basis of the business model of corporations such as Facebook or Google. Accordingly, the EU Parliament’s press release states that a “right to use and pay for services anonymously” is demanded. Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer, who is considered an expert on data protection issues, explicitly welcomed the move as a major “victory for the protection of our privacy and security on the Internet.”

Breyer sees a major point of criticism in the proposal, also included in the draft, to require providers of porn portals to verify all users who upload materials. According to Breyer, this verification requirement “undermines the right to anonymity and endangers the safety and lives of sex workers in the European Union.”

Other proposals such as that of a complete ban on personalized advertising were not included in the draft, for which the Corporate Europe Observatory also blames the lobbying of Google, Facebook and Co.

Whether the digital services law will be adopted in the form now proposed is questionable due to the weak position of the democratically elected EU Parliament; in addition to the Parliament, the Council of the EU, in which the governments of the member states are represented, must also give its consent.