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US Activists Oppose US Govt Calls To Weaken EU Privacy Rules

Posted by Unknown on from the lizard-people-lie dept.

judgecorp writes "The European Commission has proposals for data privacy (including the 'right to be forgotten') and the U.S. government is opposing them. Now U.S. activists have arrived in Brussels to lobby against their government's opposition to the European measures. The move comes following reports of 'extreme' lobbying by U.S. authorities against the European proposals." Although the "right to be forgotten" raises some free speech issues, it doesn't seem like a bad idea in principle.

3 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. It cuts both ways by pjt33 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...the "right to be forgotten" raises some free speech issues...

    is one way to look at it, but the other way to look at it is that free speech raises some privacy issues. As the Stanford Law Review article recognises, there's a tension between the two and different cultures choose to give them different weights. That doesn't make either culture right or wrong.

    1. Re:It cuts both ways by BitterOak · · Score: 5, Interesting

      ...the "right to be forgotten" raises some free speech issues...

      is one way to look at it, but the other way to look at it is that free speech raises some privacy issues. As the Stanford Law Review article recognises, there's a tension between the two and different cultures choose to give them different weights. That doesn't make either culture right or wrong.

      True, and in the pre-Internet days, it didn't matter very much if two different cultures weighed those two issues quite differently But it gets much more complicated when we're all connected. Suppose a European creates a Facebook account (hosted in the US) and later wants some information removed. Which country's laws should prevail? It gets even more interesting if it isn't a big international company like Facebook, but a small US-based blog site, that someone in a foreign nation chooses to participate in. Whose laws prevail then?

      The Internet is a wonderful thing, but difficulties do arise when different countries' approaches to freedom of speech differ, and both counties share the same global Internet.

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
  2. Re:Fortunately by mill3d · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since these companies are based in Ireland for tax purposes, that might indeed end up happening...
    On the other hand, that could also force said companies' tax dollars back into the US which wouldn't hurt at this point...

    --
    Nothing is enough for whom enough is too little - Confucius