New laws on privacy proposed by the European Union could see messaging services such as Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Whatsapp and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Skype face a stricter operating environment. This is according to a draft document that was made available to Reuters. The new regulatory proposals will require that rules that were previously only applied to telecoms now be applied equally to firms providing messages and calls over the internet.

Privacy and confidentiality

With the new rules, internet service firms will be required to guarantee that the messages and calls will remain confidential. Additionally, such firms will also have to get the consent of users before they can process the user’s location data. This is similar to a data protection law that is expected to take effect in 2018.

In the past telecommunication firms have lodged complaints claiming bias since companies such as Microsoft, Facebook and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) face fewer and lighter regulations despite the fact that they provide services that are similar. Consequently, the telecoms have proposed a repeal of the rules or for the rules to be applied uniformly across the sectors.

“If Europe wants a Silicon Valley, it needs radical regulatory simplification. We won’t get new digital services unless we overhaul e-Privacy,” Lise Fuhr, the European telecoms operators association (ETNO) director general, said.

Targeted advertisements

Online advertisers will also not be spared by the proposed policy as the rules on how they target and serve ads to internet users based on browsing history will be stricter. For instance, the processing of user’s data in the absence of consent will not be allowed. Breaching the rules would attract fines of almost 4% of the global turnover of a company.

While the EU commission did not provide more information on the matter, it is believed the review is meant to harmonize the rules with the data protection regulations that will come into play in 2018. It is also meant to enable the simplification of cookie provision. As it is currently, telecoms are prevented from making use of customer data to offer extra services such as targeted ads.

In Tuesday’s trading Facebook rose 2.16% to close the day at $120.31 a share. Microsoft rose 1.30% to close the day at $62.98 a share.