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In reply to the discussion: Google announces privacy settings change across products; users can’t opt out [View all]dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Back on the computer now.
Process started last year : EU wants Facebook, Google to comply with new data rules.
(Reuters) - Social-networking sites such as Facebook, or search engines such as Google, may face court action if they fail to obey planned EU data privacy rules, European Union justice chief Viviane Reding said on Wednesday.
Reding will propose an overhaul of the EU's 16-year-old laws on data protection in the coming months to enforce more safeguards on how personal information is used.
Much of the revamp would target sites such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft or Yahoo, because of rising worries about how they use information they collect about users' personal habits.
Reding wants to force companies to allow Internet users to withdraw any data held by the websites, calling it the "right to be forgotten," as well as make the firms provide more information on what data is collected and for what purpose.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/16/us-eu-data-privacy-idUSTRE72F69S20110316
There are some later progress links lurking around from the past week or so. Agreement to proceed should occur 29th January, next week, but will then need approval of individual states to beome law and that will take a while.