European Commission to Strengthen its Data Privacy Directive in 2010

Acknowledging that innovations have outpaced legislation designed to protect privacy rights, the European Commission intends a comprehensive revision of its data protection rules, according to euobserver.com.  In the years since the 1995 Data Protection Directive was enacted, privacy concerns have been intensified by developments such as behavioral advertising, airport body scanning devices and Facebook, the global social media site that has drawn criticism for its attitude towards users' privacy.  Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, indicated in a recent speech that privacy issues are a top priority.  While recognizing the importance of innovation, she stressed that privacy rights should not be compromised, individuals should be able to object to companies' collection of their personal data, and that businesses needed to consider these issues from the outset of product development.

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