Brussels, 23/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - With the member states working on legislation to protect consumers' online data, two telecommunications and information representatives of the American Department of Commerce, Lawrence E. Strickling and Daniel Weitzner, met EU Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding in Brussels on Tuesday 22 March. The aim was to discuss the respective work underway and to confirm certain common points, such as the need to preserve consumers' confidence as regards the use of their personal data by companies.
The Commission is soon to put forward its proposed revision of the 1995 European directive on the protection of personal data. Reding has several times stressed the need for several guarantees, such as the right to be forgotten on the internet, and the option for owners to withdraw their data when they have not been used.
In the United States, preparations are underway for a moment on a “charter on the right to confidentiality” for internet users and, for the first time, a legal base has also been put forward to provide a raft of principles guaranteeing the protection of consumers' data, such as the right of consumers to access their data, the option to limit their use and the right to be forgotten.
The European Commission considers that these American first steps “are certainly a good thing”, according to Reding's spokesperson, who also said that the two approaches are even somewhat “convergent”. (S.P./transl.fl)