Reding to move swiftly on Internet privacy

Our privacy faces new challenges: behavioural advertising can use your internet history to better market products; social networking sites used by 41.7m Europeans allow personal information like photos to be seen by others; and the 6bn smart chips used today can trace your movements.

On Data Protection Day, 28 January 2010, the European Commission warned that data protection rules must be updated to keep abreast of technological change to ensure the right to privacy, legal certainty for industry, and the take-up of new technologies. EU rules say that a person's information can only be used on legitimate grounds, with their prior consent.

With the Lisbon Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights now in force, the Commission said it wants to create a clear, modern set of rules for the whole EU guaranteeing a high level of personal data protection and privacy, starting with a reform of the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Brussels to tighten data protection rules http://www.europeansources.info/record/brussels-to-tighten-data-protection-rules/

EurActiv, 28.1.10: EU to review banking data deal with US http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/eu-review-banking-data-deal-us/article-189328

European Commission: Press Release: IP/10/63: Europeans' Privacy will be big challenge in next decade, says EU Commissioner http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/63&format=PDF&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

EurActiv, 1.2.10: Social networks put careers at risk, survey finds http://www.euractiv.com/en/Social-networks-careers-risk

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