Ralf Bendrath

The US is exerting heavy pressure on the EU in its negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to waive legislation placing restrictions on data-sharing with third countries. The Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), which would succeed the GATS agreement, goes even further in hollowing out EU privacy law. To abandon localized data protection arrangements in the EU would be to surrender fundamental rights to economic interest. Political scientist Ralf Bendrath explains.

The overturning of the EU Data Retention Directive by the German Constitutional Court provides an impetus for a Europeanization of the data privacy campaign, writes Ralf Bendrath. The biggest challenge for the new civil rights movement is to create greater public awareness of the problem in individual EU countries.