EU privacy czars mull privacy regulation for Skype, WhatsApp

The tussle over the future of the ePrivacy Directive is warming up: while tech and telcos want the directive relaxed or scrapped, the European Union is considering extending it to cover services like WhatsApp and Skype. Last month, the GSMA published a joint industry statement asking Europe to scrap the e-Privacy Directive; …

[Anonymous Coward]

Why did the industry need to call IP based transmission OTT?

Seriously that confused me for about 6 months after I first came across it, as reading the wikipedia entry left me none the wiser.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think they are using the term correctly.

OTT used to mean multiple services at the same time, for example you watch "Britains got nothing to do on a Saturday night" and you can follow along on your iPad and get extra "Over the top" services like voting and more info on each person and all that other wonderful stuff.

If it now just means anything that is "over the top" of a telco cable, its pretty broad and we kinda had a name for that already; the internet (not just the www).

[Anonymous Coward]

Good show.

Regardless of semantics, this is good news however you look at it... well, except, perhaps, if you're peering over from Maryland ;)

Post Brexit, the world's a better place without us in the EU.

[John Presland]

Re: Good show.

The EU's better off.

[nijam]

> ... benefit consumers, by giving them a “consistent and meaningful set of rules”

Their plan is for the rule to be "There is no privacy". It's certainly consistent and meaningful.