[ComplianceWeek] European Parliament Group Embraces Tougher Data Protection Regulations

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Members of European Parliament pushed forward last week with sweeping reforms to the European Union’s data protection rules, which would strengthen privacy protections and impose stiff penalties for companies running afoul of the new rules. […]

Digital rights experts praised the effort to improve privacy laws, but complained of “massive loopholes,” including in the law’s treatment of so-called pseudonymous data profiling. Pseudonymous data is essentially nonidentifying data that can become identifying data with a little more information. The draft includes an exception allowing use of pseudonymous data for “legitimate interests.”

If allowed to stand, this vote would launch an ‘open season’ for online companies to quietly collect our data, create profiles and sell our personalities to the highest bidder,” Joe McNamee, executive director of European Digital Rights, said in a statement. “This is all the more disappointing because it undermines and negates much of the good work that has been done.” […]

http://www.complianceweek.com/european-parliament-group-embraces-tougher-data-protection-regulations/article/317593/