Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Facebook On Collision Course With New EU Privacy Laws

Posted by Soulskill on from the ramming-speed dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Facebook and other U.S. internet companies are faced with a new EU data protection regime, the Christian Science Monitor reports. U.S. concepts of free expression and commerce will battle European support for privacy and state legislation. 'Companies must understand that if they want access to 500 million consumers in the EU, then they have to comply. This is not an option,' said a spokesman for the EU Justice Commissioner."

2 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. -1 Flamebait by peppepz · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "U.S. concepts of free expression and commerce will battle European support for privacy and state legislation."? Really?

    Was this summary explicitly written in trollspeak to ignite yet another US vs Europe flamewar on /. ?

  2. Directive in conflict with Patriot Act? by Frans+Faase · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think a bigger problem is that this new privacy directed is also in conflict with the Patriot Act. If I understand it correctly, the Patriot Act allows the USA government to seize any data (no matter where it is being hosted in the world) from any company that has a legal entity in the USA. The new privacy directive does not allow any government to size this data. To me it seems that any company that has a legal entity in the USA can no longer store any private (customer) data of people falling under the laws of to the EU.