ePrivacy Directive (ePD)

ePrivacy Directive (ePD) is the abbreviation commonly used for the European Union “Directive on Privacy and electronic communications” from the year 2002, which was established to enforce fundamental human rights in the digital world, considering the rapid growth and development of the IT-based services.  

An EU regulation to replace (repeal) the current ePrivacy directive is currently being drafted - called the “Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications” (Status quo can be found here: ePrivacy Regulation Draft).

The cookie notifications that you always see when first visiting a website is a result of the ePrivacy law.

In the past few years, the European Commission's proposal for a regulation on ePrivacy has started a major modernization process, which led to the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

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