Privacy law

Two conservative officials resigned and one was ousted on Friday amid a scandal involving the leak of an unspecified number of email addresses of Greek voters residing abroad.

The storm raised by a conservative Eurodeputy's emailing Greeks resident abroad, who will be able to vote by mail for the first time in June's European Parliament elections, is a reminder that lists of names, with addresses, phone numbers and emails, are in the hands of every political candidate.

The EU's landmark curbs on how tech titans do business online kick in from Thursday, but just how far Brussels succeeds in bringing the giants to heel will hinge on bitter battles that still lie ahead.

Citizens live, communicate and conduct transactions in a digital environment that is very hard to regulate. Abuses of personal data and threats to privacy are constant. It is a constitutional obligation of the state to guarantee the security of citizens' private information.

The Athens Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday launched an investigation into the leak of an unspecified number of emails of Greeks living abroad which came into the possession of New Democracy MEP Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou.

The Ministry of the Interior is planning to carry out an internal inquiry to ascertain whether there has been a breach of privacy laws that allowed a candidate for the ruling conservative party in the upcoming European parliamentary elections to send hundreds of Greeks abroad campaign material to their private email accounts.

Consumer groups from eight countries in the European BEUC network, including from Greece, on Thursday filed complaints against Meta with their national data protection authorities, saying Meta has failed to adhere to GDPR principles on the processing of personal data.

Opposition parties have alleged that a New Democracy MEP breached data protection regulations in emailing Greek voters overseas ahead of the European Parliament elections in June.

For decades, privacy experts have been wary of snooping from space. They feared satellites powerful enough to zoom in on individuals, capturing close-ups that might differentiate adults from children or suited sunbathers from those in a state of nature.

Facebook and Instagram users in Europe will be able to buy subscriptions to use the social networks without being tracked for targeted advertising from next month, Meta announced on Oct. 30, to comply with tougher EU rules.