Research On The Reform Of Data Protection Framework In European Union

One of the important things on the European digital agenda is trying to modernize thecurrent framework of personal data protection. On January25,2012, the EuropeanCommission has successfully put forward a package of reforms, the core of which are twoproposals, namely the <Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of theCouncil on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and onthe free movement of such data(General Data Protection Regulation)>and<Proposal for aDirective of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals withregard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purpose ofprevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal penalties, and the freemovement of such data>.This thesis thus focus on the new changes brought by the twoproposals for the data protection.It consists of six parts. The first part expresses the reasons for adopting the terminologyof “personal data”. And part two gives an introduction to the backgrounds and purposes forinitiating the reform. The part three tries to formulate the key changes coming along with thereform. While in the following part, I would like to compare the European data protectionreform with the <Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights> drafted by the White House. Later in partfive, I plan to describe the pros and cons of China’s data protection rules. And part six willconclude the contribution by suggesting establishing a modern data protection framework inChina.To be specific, the motives for the reform could be listed as follows. In the first place, byenriching the types of rights, it wants to strength the fact that an individual has a basic right ofdata protection. In the second place, confronted with the challenges generated by newtechnologies, it hopes to promote the development of new commercial modes. Thirdly, itdecides to harmonize the data protection framework of European Union so as to enjoy thelegal certainty. Fourthly, it is willing to encourage the Member States to cooperate with eachother in enforcement of the data protection rules. Finally, it wants to promote the free transferof personal data while provides protection for data privacy. At the same time, it has threepurposes, modernizing the current framework, simplifying the regulations, protecting the dataprivacy whilst promoting the free transfer of data. The key changes of the reform focus on five areas, i.e. the concept of personal data, theprinciples of data protection, the rights of data subject, the rules regarding new technologies,and the framework of data protection authorities.And through applying the FIPPs to resolve the challenges brought by innovation oftechnologies, cooperating with other jurisdictions, and supplementing the existing framework,the <Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights> aims to preserve the trust in the Internet economy.Besides, the Bill confirms the seven principles of data protection, namely Individual Control,Transparency, Respect for Context, Security, Access and Accuracy, Focused Collection andAccountability. What’s more, this contribution tries to compare the different characteristics ofthe Bill and the European data protection reform.Although China has made much progress on the data protection, it still lacks a singledata protection Act, pays less attention to the rights of data subject as well as the enforcementof the data protection rules, and it falls behind the other countries in protecting personal dataprivacy.In conclusion, due to the emergence of information society and digital economy, weshould join the international trend of data protection, which will benefit both the economicdevelopment as well as the individual development. As a result, it will be our greatresponsibility for creating a modern framework of data protection and finding out thedifferences between data protection and Internet governance.