He argues there are growing reasons for businesses to care about customer data privacy risks given, for example, Europe's incoming new general data protection directive which greatly increasing the penalties companies can face for data breaches.
A new general data protection directive was also agreed by European politicians at the back end of last year which will bring in stricter penalties for privacy infringements when it comes into force in 2018.
As regards the general data protection directive, the Commission has launched infringement procedures against six Member States.
As regards internal EU rules, in January 2012 the Commission put forward an ambitious data protection package which comprises both a general data protection regulation and a proposal for a directive on data protection in the context of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
On the Directive that will apply general data protection principles and rules to police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, the rapporteur agrees with the Commission's proposal to extend the rules to both domestic and cross-border transfers of data.
In a letter sent in December 2009, John Vassallo, Microsoft's associate general counsel in Brussels, asked the commission to change the E.U.'s data protection directive to assign varying levels of privacy restrictions to different kinds of data, which could ease the transfer of some personal information, like names and addresses, for commercial marketing purposes if consumers gave their consent.
Ranger notes in passing developments such as the reformulated European data protection directive (i.e. the GDPR), as well as general rising awareness of data privacy and security issues, but argues that the really pressing demand now is actually coming from businesses wanting better quality data than they've been able to acquire by the current (i.e. non-transparent) data acquisition methods.
The ePrivacy directive is a supplement to Europe's incoming general data protection rules (GDPR), finally agreed by MEPs at the back end of last year — and just today voted through the LIBE committee.
The ePrivacy directive is a supplement to Europe's incoming general data protection rules (GDPR), finally agreed by MEPs at the back end of last year — and just today voted through the LIBE committee.
Ranger notes in passing developments such as the reformulated European data protection directive (i.e. the GDPR), as well as general rising awareness of data privacy and security issues, but argues that the really pressing demand now is actually coming from businesses wanting better quality data than they've been able to acquire by the current (i.e. non-transparent) data acquisition methods.
Second, there is the Data Protection Act 1998, derived from the European data protection directive.
