The rapid adoption of mobile communication technology in Europe and the availability of the internet via mobile phones provide new opportunities for location-dependent services. These can be used to enhance the safety and security of European citizens, particularly if the common emergency number (112) becomes more widely adopted. Automatic location of emergency calls and multilingual support should become the norm, backed up by proposals for a new telecommunications regulatory framework. However, permanent surveillance of the whereabouts of European citizens via their mobile phones is considered unacceptable and a European Commission Telecoms Data Protection Directive is proposed. The establishment of a co-ordination group to facilitate these changes is described. For the covering abstract see ITRD E114174.
Samenvatting