Press release no. 236 from 07.11.11BMELV supports plans to better protect privacy on the internet

Federal Minister Aigner and EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, Source: European Commission

The Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) supports the EU Commission’s objective to improve data protection across Europe. The new EU Data Protection Directive must protect personal data of consumers in Europe more efficiently, regardless of the EU country they reside in and of the country the companies processing their data are based in. However, individual Member States in Europe should continue to be able to go beyond European standards.

The key objective is to strengthen consumers’ self-determination with respect to their data. This includes greater control for users over their personal information and more transparency regarding the use of personal data.

The BMELV is of the opinion that the following items should be regulated across the EU:

• The right to be forgotten: In the future, consumers should be able to delete their personal data at any time and in a self-determined manner, particularly those data that they themselves provided on the internet.
• Privacy-enhancing default settings: obligation for companies to offer data protection-friendly default settings (privacy by default).
• Data protection as part of product development: requirement to implement data protection during the development of offers already (privacy by design).
• Giving consent to profile developments: clear rules for developing profiles are needed and should only be allowed after explicit consent by those affected.
• Better legal implementation vis-à-vis international corporations and companies with headquarters in the EU.
• Better international cooperation in data protection: The Safe-Harbor-Agreement between the EU and the USA, in particular, should be implemented more efficiently. This agreement is to guarantee an adequate level of data protection when transmitting data from Europe to the USA.

After their discussion in Brussels on 7.11.2011, Federal Minister of Consumer Protection Aigner and EU Commissioner for Justice and Vice-President of the European Commission Reding reaffirmed: “Our position is that companies directing their services to European customers must be directly subjected to European data protection legislation. Whoever refuses to accept this should not be allowed to do business in our internal market. This also applies in particular for social networks with users living in the EU. We must make sure that these networks respect EU legislation and that EU legislation is applied even if the providers are located outside of the EU or if they store data in so-called "clouds"."