Brussels, 17/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - A majority of EU citizens are concerned about data protection issues, according to the results of a Eurobarometer survey published on Thursday 17 April by the European Commission. Nearly 64% of respondents expressed concern about the protection of personal data. The European Commission has commissioned two Eurobarometer surveys to investigate perceptions on data protection among EU citizens and data controllers in private companies. In the first survey, respondents tend to see low levels of data protection in their own country: fewer than half of the respondents (48%) think that their data is properly protected in their own country. A majority (54%) fear that national legislation cannot cope with the growing number of people leaving personal data on the internet. Most of those taking part in the survey believe that the level of citizen awareness is low and that information is insufficient. Those responsible for data processing (data controllers) in private firms generally made a positive evaluation of the requirements of the data protection laws: 91% took the view that data protection laws are necessary in order to guarantee a high level of consumer protection and fundamental rights of citizens. Half of them, however, consider legislation cannot cope with the increasing amount of personal information being exchanged. National data protection authorities are little known to most European citizens: only 28% of respondents said they had heard of the existence of such institutions in their country. Citizens and data controllers acknowledge the need to share data in order to enhance protection. If this contributes to combating terrorism, most respondents agree it should be possible to monitor passenger flight details (82%), telephone calls (72%) and the use of the internet and credit cards (75% and 69% respectively). However, most respondents say that this should be within clearly-defined limits: around a third of respondents stressed that only suspects should be monitored (27%-35%), and approximately one in five (14%-21%) wanted even stricter safeguards. (B.C.)