The European Union on Thursday approved new data protection rules to strengthen online privacy, simplify legislation in the 28 member states and promote police and security cooperation.
The rules will create for the first time a solid law of data protection for the 500 million EU citizens, replacing an outdated network of national standards only considered small fines for offenses .
There will be a “right to be forgotten”, which means consumers may request that no essential information deleted by web search engines, like those of Google.
The rules also dictate that individuals must give “clear and affirmative consent” before private information is processed by companies or governments. This point became important after reports surfaced two years ago an extensive US government spy European data such as phone calls and emails.
The new rules also allow for greater efficiency in the transfer of information for law enforcement purposes, which will help to improve security after the attacks of 13 November in Paris, where 130 people died, and suicide attacks last month in Brussels, which left 32 dead.
The privacy has become a hot topic among pressure companies to obtain customer information, as well as the need for security services have information about suspects involved in extremist attacks .
European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that “the security of European citizens must never be guaranteed at the expense of their rights and freedoms.”
But the new rules described as “crucial steps” in the digital age when customer privacy is under greater threat than ever.
Commercially there are also a lot at stake and chief negotiator Parliament, Jan Philipp Albrecht, he said companies that violate data protection in the EU should be fined with up to 4% their annual profits, which could reach billions of dollars.
After four years of strong political battles between industry and privacy groups, the rules must be official within a period of two years.
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