Brussels, 14/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 14 July, the European Commission invited telecoms operators, internet service providers, member states, national data protection authorities, consumers and all stakeholders interested to take part in a public consultation exercise on the practical rules for notifying personal data breaches. The Commission seeks to ensure that breaches are notified in a consistent manner and raises the question of whether it is necessary to adopt additional rules on this. The revised directive on privacy and electronic communications, which took effect on 25 May 2011 at the same time as other measures on telecoms, calls on internet operators and service providers to inform the relevant national authorities without delay, as well as their customers, of any violation of personal data that they hold. Consultation is on three specific issues: (1) circumstances: how organisations comply, or intend to comply, with the new obligation under the telecoms rules; (2) procedures: notification deadline, the means of notification and the procedure for an individual case; and (3) formats: the contents of the notification to the national authority and to the individual, existing standard formats and the feasibility of a standard EU format. “We need consistency across the EU so businesses don't have to deal with a complicated range of different national schemes”, Neelie Kroes, the commissioner for the Digital Agenda, said. (I.L./transl.jl)