Processing of personnal data and protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector, ISDN

OBJECTIVE: to protect persons and in particular their privacy in respect of the processing of personal data in the telecommunications sector. COMMUNITY MEASURE: European Parliament and Council Directive 97/66/EC concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the telecommunications sector. CONTENT: the Directive applies to the processing of personal data in the public telecommunications sector, in particular in the integrated services digital networks (ISDN) and in the public digital mobile networks. It conforms with the General Directive on the protection of personal data (Directive 95/46/EC). The Direction covers phone tapping and provides for measures to guarantee the confidentiality of communications, while at the same time ensuring that public order and national security are not compromised. Beyond the basic rights of natural persons and in particular their right to respect of privacy, the Directive also seeks to protect the legitimate interests of legal persons. The Directive relates mainly to: - the security of services and networks; - the confidentiality of communications; - data on communications traffic and billing; - the right to receive non-itemised bills; - the presentation and restriction of calling and connected line identification; - automatic call-forwarding; - personal data contained in directors of subscribers: subscribers who ask not to be included in a telephone directory can only be invoiced for the administrative charges actually incurred; - unsolicited calls for purposes of direct marketing: these are only authorised when the subscriber has given prior consent. DEADLINE FOR TRANSPOSITION: 24/10/1998. �