Calendar
Civil Rights Groups Call On European Parliament To Vote For Strong Data Protection Rules
On Monday 21 October, the European Parliament will decide on the future of privacy and data protection in Europe. The recent revelations surrounding government surveillance involving some of the Internet's biggest companies have highlighted the urgency of an update of Europe's privacy rules.
The regulation will have a major impact on the digital environment for citizens, businesses and public bodies. "The choice is between clear, harmonised, predictable and enforceable rules that will benefit European citizens and businesses or unclear, unpredictable rules that will benefit nobody except data monopolies and lawyers," said Joe McNamee, EDRi's Executive Director.
Civil society groups are concerned that any weakening of the European data protection rules and principles will undermine the rights and freedoms of European citizens. The past months have shown how important it is to limit the collection of data to the minimum necessary, to ensure privacy by design and to safeguard the right of individuals to delete their data from online services. The European Parliament now has the responsibility to ensure that Europe gets strong data protection rules for a competitive and harmonised market.
The Regulation will only be as strong as its weakest link, so it is critical that no loopholes are created that would undermine our democratic rights.
Featured
