Anna Biselli writes:
Today we publish new TiSA documents in cooperation with Greenpeace which have been kept secret until now. The „Trade in Services Agreement“ is a proposed trade treaty for services between 23 Parties, including the EU and the United States.
The new leaks include the Annexes about Electronic Commerce and Telecommunications Services. Those will have a noticeable impact on net politics in the EU. They point to negative effects on data protection, net neutrality, freedom of speech and IT security.
[…]
Privacy shall not be a trade restriction
If a company’s business model is built upon the processing and sale of personal data, this company has a big interest in letting this data flow without being subject to strict data protection rules. With TiSA, the Parties may have their own regulatory requirements, but only as long as they do not impose restrictions on trade.
There would be no possibility to privilege European services over US services that have less data protection rules. The strongest initiative for this rule comes from the US that see their market domination in danger since the Snowden revelations, especially when European companies distinguished themselves by offering stronger data protection measures.
Read more on Netzpolitik.org.