Brussels, 17/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - In adopting the report by Axel Voss (EPP, Germany) on Wednesday 15 June, the European Parliament (EP) civil liberties committee called for tougher data protection and privacy rules. MEPs on the committee say that “children using social networks must be protected by EU data privacy rules” and that “all EU citizens should have the right to know what information is being stored on them and for what purpose”, a press release reports.
People “must be able to have their data easily deleted, corrected or blocked and be informed about any misuse or lapses in data protection”, says the report which is designed to influence the revision of the existing EU data protection directive, planned by the European Commission for after the summer. MEPs said that data protection rules must also be extended to the areas of police and judicial cooperation.
In their resolution, MEPs wanted the updated data protection law to include “severe and dissuasive sanctions”, including criminal penalties, for misuse and abuse of personal data. When personal data is transferred and processed outside the EU (as in the cases of PNR agreements with the United States and Canada), “it is imperative that data subjects' rights are fully enforced”, the committee says and the European Commission must devise “ambitious core EU data protection aspects to be used in international agreements”. (S.P./transl.rt)