LONDON: Britain on Thursday announced a "shake-up" of its data rules, including plans to eliminate "endless" website pop-ups asking for permission to store user information, potentially putting it on collision course with the European Union.
Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden told The Daily Telegraph that "high risk" sites would still need to ask users for permission to store "cookies" of their personal information, but that the pop-up requests were "pointless" for most websites.
The pop-ups are largely implemented to deal with European Union data law aimed at protecting people's online privacy. Dowden said that reform of data protection rules was "one of the big prizes" of leaving the bloc.
"There's an awful lot of needless bureaucracy and box ticking and actually we should be looking at how we can focus on protecting people's privacy but in as light a touch way as possible," he said. The European Union last year agreed to formally recognise Britain's data protection standards, allowing the continued flow of personal data across borders.
The European Commission warned on Thursday that any changes could affect that agreement, however.
"We... monitor very closely any developments related to the UK data protection rules," said commission spokesman Christian Wigand.
"In case of problematic developments that negatively affect the level of protection..., the adequacy decision can be suspended, terminated or amended at any time," he added. "This can be done immediately in case of justified urgency."
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