Social networking sites and search engines such as Facebook and Google may face legal action if they fail to obey planned EU data privacy rules, according to EU justice chief Viviane Reding.
Reding will propose an overhaul of the EU's 16-year-old laws on data protection in the coming months. The move is expected to enforce more safeguards on how personal information is used. According to a Reuters report, much of the revamp would target sites such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft or Yahoo. These sites are reportedly raising concern on 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'. She also wants to make the firms provide more information on what data is collected and for what purpose. Further, she feels agencies watching over privacy issues in EU countries should be given more powers to enforce compliance outside Europe as many of the companies are based in the US or hold data on servers there.
Reding, who oversees justice and human rights in the executive European Commission, said that to enforce EU law, national privacy watchdogs shall be endowed with powers to investigate and engage in legal proceedings against non-EU data controllers. Her proposals, expected before July, would have to be approved by EU governments and by the European Parliament.
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