The issue of personal details on the internet isn’t going way. At least not if the EU directive has anything to do with it.
Last November the continental powers that be began assessing privacy laws impacting on the 27 member nations. It didn’t take too long before a decision was made that current legislation wasn’t offering enough protection to users, and a tightening of boundaries, leaning of leeways, and narrowing of margins had become necessary.
Over the Atlantic, the US hasn’t met European standards of data protection for some time now, meaning it will fall further from the mark once stricter rules come into play. And when it comes to social networks, these failings are no-doubt tenfold. We have all heard worrying stories about the amount of personal information such sites store, so it’s obvious the suits responsible for outlying the need for bananas sans ‘abnormal curvature’ were going to find plenty worth shouting about when it came to online secrets, or lack thereof.
Now the EU Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has decreed that any website with a presence in Europe must adhere to the region’s standards on privacy. According to Bloomberg, that means everyone from Google to Facebook is now under extreme scrutiny from Brussels, and data protection officials from 30 countries have already collectively forced the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo! to limit the amount of time details are stored for. So where do you stand on this? Is the nanny state simply becoming more paranoid, or do the gatekeepers and communication overlords need to stop hording our particulars? It’s a debate worth debating, so let’s hear some thoughts.
Image (C) openDemocracy