This is because brands don't buy individual data, they buy individuals' data in bundles and that makes it very cheap.
"At the end of the day, protection of individuals' data is something we all have to respect".
Therefore, it is very important to support the individuals' data requirements.
Christopher Graham said claims that millions of individuals' data is being sold and ending up in the hands of criminals were "very serious".
To these lawmakers, information ownership seemed a sort of cosmetic abstraction: Facebook did its profit-generating work with individuals' data whether terms of ownership existed or not.
As envisioned, the company would still offer traditional dispatch services, but it would also offer mobile telephone service for individuals, data transmission and possibly other services.
For example, the EU has the General Data Protection Regulation, which governs and protects individuals' data privacy, while the U.S. is more lax about privacy protection.
In India, a similar database linked to a national ID card was hacked and individuals' data sold online for as little as €7.
"Companies must obtain prior consent before individuals' data is used," Mrs. Reding said in a statement released by her office.
US companies with European subsidiaries – Facebook, Google and Amazon, for example – will have to either keep individuals' data in European servers or look for another legal basis for transferring that data to the US.
It does not sell individuals' data directly, but markets access to it, using its own channels to deliver marketing – and keeping possession of a rich and highly valuable bank of personal information.
