Slashdot Mirror
EU Approves Strict New Privacy Rules
An anonymous reader writes: The EU just approved a new set of strict rules governing privacy and data protection, which include a right to be forgotten and to "clear and affirmative consent" for any processing of private data, as well as the right to know when data has been compromised. Culminating more than four years of work, "The reform will replace the current data protection directive, dating back to 1995 when the internet was still in its infancy," the EU said in a statement, "with a general regulation designed to give citizens more control over their own private information in a digitized world of smartphones, social media, internet banking and global transfers." If the rules are broken, the new EU privacy policy includes hefty fines of up to 4% of a firm's total worldwide annual turnover.
Yeah, "stick it to big US companies" is very popular, with European corporations and press, who then go out to lobby European politicians and bamboozle European voters. Also, government agencies are usually exempt from this.
Except, of course, that this is what it has been used for in the past.
True. Just look in the mirror.
Your whole argument is predicated on the existence of freedom of speech, which Europeans (proudly) don't have. You'll never see eye to eye with them because they like censorship and want more of it.