Last week I wrote about the revelation (to me, at least - maybe other people knew this was going on) that MEPs were simply cutting and pasting from lobbyists' proposals and presenting them as amendments to the important Data Protection regulation. [...]

In the case of the ITRE vote tomorrow, we basically need to contact our MEPs today and ask them to convey our views to their colleagues on these committees (unless your MEP is on a committee, in which case you can ask them directly - there's a list of UK members, and a full list for all nations. For the EMPL Committee vote on Thursday, the UK MEPs are here, and there's also a list of the European ones.) [...]

Here are six key issues, as discerned by La Quadrature du Net (also part of the above-mentioned coalition) :

1. Defend the principle of explicit, informed and for specific purpose(s) consent, no more, no less
2. Delete any mention of “legitimate interests” (for corporations to bypass privacy safeguards)
3. Protect all personal data, even if pseudonymous or encrypted, refuse that absurd concept of “pseudonymous” data be used as derogation to safeguards
4. Oblige both “controllers” and “processors“ of personal data to protect it
5. Ensure that every breach of personal data be notified to the relevant bodies, and severely sanctioned if harmful and done on purpose

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2013/02/eu-data-protect...