Brussels, 17/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - Three out of four Europeans accept that revealing personal data is part of everyday life but 75% want to be able to delete personal information online whenever they want to - the so-called right to be forgotten. These findings were revealed by the European Commission on 16 June when it released a Eurobarometer survey on attitudes towards data protection and electronic identity.
According to the survey, which strengthens the hand of Commissioner Viviane Reding in the preparation of the overhaul of the European directive on data protection as she intends to make the right to be forgotten one of the pillars of her efforts, 62% of people in the European Union give the minimum required information so as to protect their identity.
The survey shows that 60% of Europeans who use the internet (40% of all EU citizens) shop or sell things online and use social networking sites. “People disclose personal data, including biographical information (almost 90%), social information (almost 50%) and sensitive information (almost 10%) on these sites”, the Commission says. Of those polled, 70% said they were concerned about how companies use this data and they “think that they have only partial, if any, control of their own data”. The survey showed that 74% want to give their specific consent before their data is collected and processed on the internet.
People's most frequent concerns are about fraud when shopping online (mentioned by 55%), information being used without their knowledge on social networking sites (44%), and data being shared by companies without their agreement (43%).
The Commission points out that “the key principle of EU data protection rules is that users have to give consent before their data is used. This information cannot then be passed on without the user's approval and companies cannot use it for purposes other than what was agreed”. It is on this basis that Reding will work. (S.P./transl.rt)