AEI Fellow Warns Against GDPR Becoming Shield for Bad Actors

Without proper balance, the EU’s General Data Privacy Regulation could allow bad actors even more freedom for spreading false information and fostering illicit markets, wrote American Enterprise Institute's Shane Tews in a blog post this week. The GDPR (see 1802070001), which is to take effect in May, is meant to be a uniform set of data privacy and protection laws across the EU. One of the challenges of the new law is its impact on ICANN's WHOIS database, which law enforcement uses to investigate digital crimes, and companies use to protect trademarks. Under the new law, WHOIS data such as names and contact details might be identified as private, protected data requiring individual consent to be distributed. Tews said that could mean “a lot less information on who is contractually responsible for a domain,” allowing perpetrators to better hide their identities. ICANN is reviewing how to adapt to the new EU law. Tews said the larger challenge is keeping a free flow of internet traffic that allows accurate, trusted content, which requires identity verification for who's distributing the content. “Online actors who know how to be deceptive in their ways can weave through online networks to protect themselves. It would be a shame if the well-intended GDPR became one of their tools of the trade,” she wrote.