Bloomberg
Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and other online companies face stricter privacy-protection rules as the European Union seeks to change a 15-year-old law following the emergence of online advertising and social-networking sites.
The rules would make it easier for people to get personal data corrected, deleted or blocked, the European Commission said in a document on possible changes to data protection law in the 27-nation EU. Stricter sanctions, such as criminal penalties, and the possibility for consumer rights groups to sue are part of the plans, according to the document obtained by Bloomberg News.
“Rapid technological developments and globalization have profoundly changed the world around us, and brought new challenges for the protection of personal data,” the Brussels- based commission, the EU’s executive agency, said in the document, scheduled to be published tomorrow. Online social- networking “presents significant challenges to the individual’s effective control” over personal data.
Google and Facebook, the top social-networking service, are among several Internet companies under scrutiny in the EU for possible privacy-rule breaches over the way they use personal data. Data protection officials from 30 European countries have pushed Google, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. to limit the amount of time they store search records. The same group criticized Facebook in May for policy changes that could have harmed users’ privacy rights.
‘Golden Opportunity’
“Much criticism has been laid at the door of the data protection regime over the years for imposing rules but little assurance that privacy is actually being achieved in practice,” said Nick Graham, head of the information and privacy group at law firm SNR Denton. “The commission now has a golden opportunity to remedy this.”
Ways of collecting data have increased, while at the same time they have become “less easily detectable,” the commission said in the document. Under current rules, the way in which people can access, change, delete or block their data “is not harmonized.”
The planned changes are part of a “shift of focus” triggered by the appearance of social networking sites, Internet-connected mobile phones and targeted online-advertising since the existing data protection law came into being 15 years ago, Viviane Reding, the EU’s justice commissioner, has said.
This week’s document will form the basis or further discussion before draft legislation will be proposed in 2011 which will then need the approval of EU nations and lawmakers.
“We are confident that an effective modern privacy protection framework can support growth in the internet economy and can enable the free services that consumers value,” said Justin B. Weiss, Yahoo’s international director of privacy.
Google spokesman Al Verney said the Mountain View, California-based company had no comment. Microsoft spokesman Jesse Verstraete in Brussels said the company will comment once the EU plans are released. Facebook spokespeople didn’t immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.
The rules would make it easier for people to get personal data corrected, deleted or blocked, the European Commission said in a document on possible changes to data protection law in the 27-nation EU. Stricter sanctions, such as criminal penalties, and the possibility for consumer rights groups to sue are part of the plans, according to the document obtained by Bloomberg News.
“Rapid technological developments and globalization have profoundly changed the world around us, and brought new challenges for the protection of personal data,” the Brussels- based commission, the EU’s executive agency, said in the document, scheduled to be published tomorrow. Online social- networking “presents significant challenges to the individual’s effective control” over personal data.
Google and Facebook, the top social-networking service, are among several Internet companies under scrutiny in the EU for possible privacy-rule breaches over the way they use personal data. Data protection officials from 30 European countries have pushed Google, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo! Inc. to limit the amount of time they store search records. The same group criticized Facebook in May for policy changes that could have harmed users’ privacy rights.
‘Golden Opportunity’
“Much criticism has been laid at the door of the data protection regime over the years for imposing rules but little assurance that privacy is actually being achieved in practice,” said Nick Graham, head of the information and privacy group at law firm SNR Denton. “The commission now has a golden opportunity to remedy this.”
Ways of collecting data have increased, while at the same time they have become “less easily detectable,” the commission said in the document. Under current rules, the way in which people can access, change, delete or block their data “is not harmonized.”
The planned changes are part of a “shift of focus” triggered by the appearance of social networking sites, Internet-connected mobile phones and targeted online-advertising since the existing data protection law came into being 15 years ago, Viviane Reding, the EU’s justice commissioner, has said.
This week’s document will form the basis or further discussion before draft legislation will be proposed in 2011 which will then need the approval of EU nations and lawmakers.
“We are confident that an effective modern privacy protection framework can support growth in the internet economy and can enable the free services that consumers value,” said Justin B. Weiss, Yahoo’s international director of privacy.
Google spokesman Al Verney said the Mountain View, California-based company had no comment. Microsoft spokesman Jesse Verstraete in Brussels said the company will comment once the EU plans are released. Facebook spokespeople didn’t immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.
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