Fines for privacy breaches up to €810,000 to be proposed

Belgium’s privacy commission should be able to impose fines of up to €810,000 against companies that break privacy and data protection laws, secretary of state Bart Tommelein  has proposed. Tommelein, tasked with federal privacy issues, is due to present a bill later this year, pre-empting a European directive under discussion.

The EU’s Council of Ministers is considering privacy regulations as a response to global internet giants, like Google and Facebook, that gather user information and exploit it for commercial gain. While most users give permission – albeit in many cases inadvertently – it was recently revealed that Facebook also tracks the website behaviour of non-users who have come in contact with websites Facebook is linked to.

Belgian law allows for criminal prosecutions for breaches of data protection laws, but they are rarely carried out. European rules could still be up to 18 months from being approved.

“After the summer, I’ll be presenting a bill to parliament to transform the Privacy Commission into a regulator with the power to impose its own administrative fines,” he explained. “That way we will not only be prepared for European measures, we’ll be in a stronger position, and we’ll keep up the pressure. I want to send a clear signal: Privacy has become such an important issue; we want to show that we are taking it seriously.”

Photo: Ingimage