The European Parliament's civil liberties committee voted today in favor of sweeping new privacy regulations that could impose new obligations on Web companies.
One key
provision of the measure that moved forward today gives consumers the right to delete prior material they have
posted, including tweets, Facebook photos and the like. Consumers could potentially even have the legal right to delete reviews they've posted on sites like Ripoff Report, which currently has a
policy prohibiting deletions. (It's not completely clear that review sites would be required to delete posts, because the law has an exception for material in the public interest.)
Another component stems from revelations in June that the National Security Agency obtained a trove of personal data from Web companies. The proposal that cleared today
would prohibit Yahoo, Google, Facebook or any other company from giving information about EU citizens to officials
of other governments, unless a European law or treaty authorizes sharing that data.
Companies that violate the proposed law could face fines of up to 5% of their
annual revenue.
The measure hasn't yet been accepted by the EU -- which means that the final law might not be as sweeping as the proposal approved today. Web
companies -- many of which lobbied against the proposal -- are expected to campaign to scale back the terms.
Still, some privacy advocates cheered today's vote.
“This evening's vote is a breakthrough for data protection in Europe and would overhaul EU rules, ensuring they are up to the task of the challenges in the digital age,” European data
protection regulation official Jan Philipp Albrecht said in a statement. “This legislation introduces overarching EU rules on data protection, replacing the current patchwork of national laws,
and a clear majority ... has tonight voted to ensure it delivers a high level of protection for EU citizens.”
Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center
for Digital Democracy, adds that the vote is a “historic development for privacy in the 21st Century.”