EU to tighten privacy rules; Google, Facebook to face the heat?
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 05 November 2010, 12:40 IST   |    1 Comments
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Bangalore: The issue of digital privacy is gaining momentum as news of data leak out at companies such as Facebook and Google is doing its rounds. In a bid to ensure stronger protection of Internet users' personal information, the European Commission is on its way to overhaul its data protection rules. The new legislation, which will replace the earlier rules of 1995, is likely to be on board next year. According to Viviane Reding, the Justice Commissioner, since the protection of personal data is a fundamental right; clear and consistent data protection rules are required to ensure it. The upcoming set of rules are going to take account of the development of social networking, personalized advertising and other Web services as they have raised online privacy concerns. Reding also opined that these rules should be kept up-to-date to catch up with challenges raised by new technologies and globalization. The concerns about digital privacy highlighted by recent leaks of personal data have been more noticeable in European countries, like Germany, than in the U.S. The commission is of the opinion that consumers have to be informed about the use of their data and if required, they should have the right to fully delete digital information, like social networking profiles. Last month, Google had collected information like e-mail messages and passwords while gathering pictures for its Street View online mapping service, which, according to data protection officials in Britain, a is 'significant breach' of privacy laws. Facebook also comes to the picture, since it recently acknowledged that some of its social networking applications passed personal information to marketers without the user's knowledge. Rules that require Internet companies to secure users' response upfront could throttle the development of services that align online advertising with Web users' personal interests. The new development can also restrain efforts to develop cloud computing services

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