Glacial progress
In April 2009 the European Commission told the UK that it wasn't doing enough to protect internet users from having their activities being tracked without their knowledge or permission by services such as Phorm.
A mere six months later the EC lunged towards the next phase of proceedings against the UK, after it became clear that our own bureaucrats had done nothing to address its concerns in the intervening time.
All that frenetic activity clearly tired-out the European officials responsible for hassling the UK over data privacy, and they gave themselves 11 months to recharge their batteries before charging unto the breach once more.
Today they presented the latest fruits of their generously subsidised labour: they've taken the gloves off and... referred the matter to someone else. It may seem draconian, but that's the kind of hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners treatment you can expect from the EC when you interrupt its tax-payer funded holiday.
So, after a year and a half, the trifling matter of our privacy online has been finally been referred to the EU's Court of Justice, with the UK accused of "not fully implementing EU rules on the confidentiality of electronic communications such as e-mail or internet browsing. Specifically, the Commission considers that UK law does not comply with EU rules on consent to interception and on enforcement by supervisory authorities."
In the meantime nothing seems to have been done to protect Internet users from such invasions of privacy, and we hold out little hope that the EU Court of Justice will attach any more urgency to the matter than the EC did.
Just in case you don't appreciate all this work Europe is doing on your behalf, take a look at the two charts below uncovered by a spot of Googling. The UK contributes around ten percent of an EC budget of €140 billion. We're sure you'll agree that, on the evidence of this matter alone, we're getting pretty damn good value for money.
