Slashdot Mirror
New EU Legal Privacy Framework: We're Not Kidding
An anonymous reader writes "Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission announced today a new regulation for data privacy in Europe (PDF) in replacement of a 1995 Directive. Recently, privacy laws have been under a lot of criticism for their practical inability to ensure a high level of protection to EU citizens. The new data privacy framework will bring a lot of changes: 24 hours security breach notifications, mandatory security assessments, end of notifications to local data privacy agencies, mandatory data protection officers and huge administrative fines: up to 2% of the annual worldwide turnover (that would have meant $1.2 Billion for Microsoft in 2008). Indeed that's 'the necessary "teeth" so the rules can be enforced.'"
Totally agree...this idea that businesses shouldn't be held responsible for their actions (or inactions) goes back to the business "revolution" of the 70s...the professional manager who operates without ethics, and who's only allegiance is to the shareholder (or their own salaries/bonuses)...it's about time governments started standing up for their citizens again....sign me up too!
O2 must be glad they made their massive screw up before this came into effect...
No it can't just be ignored. If these laws pass, every EU country will be forced to implement them. The European Commission has very sharp teeth indeed on stuff like this, and does not take kindly to companies trying to ignore its rules.
Yep yep.
As a US citizen now thoroughly ashamed of my society's behavior (esp. regulatory capture, as well as the all-classes corruption of the housing bubble), this news is the first time in my entire life that European society has seemed superior.
It is quite a moment for me, coming as it is at the tail end of twenty years of staunch libertarian patriotism.
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
As a US citizen now thoroughly ashamed of my society's behavior (esp. regulatory capture, as well as the all-classes corruption of the housing bubble), this news is the first time in my entire life that European society has seemed superior.
The first time ever? That's incredible.
Europe and the US have different views (to varying degrees) on many topics. Money, commerce, society, art, sex, the poor, the rich, military, environment, privacy, citizen rights and restrictions, punishment, education, transport, sport, patriotism, police, tax ...
Pick any one of those and I'll be able to describe things I like about Europe (and dislike about America), and vice-versa.
One of the important rules is "If the data subject's consent is to be given in the context of a written declaration which also concerns another matter, the requirement to give consent must be presented distinguishable in its appearance from this other matter." In other words, merely consenting to a long EULA that involves transference of data isn't enough. There has to be a separate checkbox to allow redistributing data. EULAs that allow one party to change the terms at any time won't qualify, either.
Every time I see that measured, it consistently shows the US having the least social mobility of all developed nations. For example, here: http://ftp.iza.org/dp1993.pdf and http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/81/
I do often see the claim that the US has an advantage here, but I have never, ever seen it backed up, while I have seen the counterclaim backed up.