According to Euractiv, The Council of the EU finally adopted a position on new data protection rules as part of the negotiations on the ePrivacy regulation. These updated 'ePrivacy' rules define cases in which service providers are allowed to process electronic communications data or have access to data stored on end-users' devices. It was reported that Germany and Austria abstained from voting. Berlin's data protection authority called for 'significant changes' to the Council's mandate and asked the European Parliament to 'demand a rise in data protection standards during trilogue negotiations', highlighting in particular their concerns over data retention and the practice of telecom providers saving data about their clients' communications without justification.