Call for tougher rules on data protection

EU privacy standards ‘should apply to all EU citizens’ data’.

A two-pronged move to tighten data-protection rules emerged on Monday from a European Commission vice-president and a German minister, with clear implications for companies such as Facebook and Google. Citizens should have the right to delete data that they have posted online, they insisted.

Viviane Reding, the commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, and Ilse Aigner, Germany’s minister for consumers, issued a joint call on 7 November for EU privacy standards to apply to all EU citizens’ data, even when it is held by companies that are not based in the EU.

Speaking after a meeting in Brussels, Reding and Aigner issued a statement urging that every company marketing services to EU consumers should be subject to EU data-protection laws as a precondition to doing business on the internal market. This should also apply to social networks, they added.

The two stressed the importance of giving consumers more control over their data. “EU law should require that consumers give their explicit consent before their data are used,” they said.

Updating rules

By the end of the year, the Commission is to present proposals for a revision of existing rules on data protection, which date back to 1995. Technology companies such as Facebook and Google are concerned that stricter EU data rules would make it harder and more expensive to reach European users.