Pre-Covid-19 Cash Squeeze Is Thwarting Privacy Law, EU Warned

European Union data privacy watchdogs, now expected to step up amid the Covid-19 pandemic, were routinely starved of resources to do their regular job properly, a U.S. software maker warned in a complaint to the EU.

Regulators are under-resourced and incapable of using the full powers they have been given by one of the world’s strictest privacy rules, Brave Software Inc. said, accusing EU governments of not complying with the law.

Brave, which makes an ad-blocking browser, said it filed the complaint with the European Commission against the EU’s 27 member nations on Monday for failing to properly fund and equip their national privacy watchdogs.

The warning comes as privacy regulators across the EU have worked around the clock to issue guidance on the legal limits of technology aimed at tracking the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The Irish data authority is one of the EU’s lead regulators, tasked with monitoring privacy compliance by some of the biggest tech giants, such as Facebook Inc. and Google, which have their EU base in the country. While the number of complaints and probes are rising, “increases to its budget and headcount are decelerating,” Brave said in a report, also published on Monday.

National officials who enforce the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation “must be able to properly investigate big tech and act without fear of vexatious appeals,” Johnny Ryan, chief policy officer at Brave, said in a statement. “The national governments of European countries have not given them the resources to do so. The European Commission must intervene.”

The EU authority declined to immediately comment on the report.

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Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

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Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net

Peter Chapman, Amy Thomson

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