EU Parliament Recommends Tough Privacy Rules

The Civil Liberties Committee of the European Union Parliament has arrived at a recommendation for member states regarding the gathering and use of personal data. This is an accelerated result propelled largely by the Snowden case and subsequent revelations regarding NSA surveillance and data impounding. A structure for cross-border use and fines for non-compliance was set. Prohibitions against profiling and insistence on the "Right to be Forgotten" are also included. "It's an important vote, and it's one that before [Edward] Snowden and the NSA revelations many people didn't expect," said Christopher Wolf, director of the Privacy and Information Management practice group at law firm Hogan Lovells. "This was a major, major step." Response has been broad-based and swift. "The regulation looks pretty robust, though there are some workarounds that will let companies do a lot of what they already do," suggested Justin Brookman, director of consumer privacy at the Center for Democracy and Technology.