[LINK] EU Parliament 'data rights charter'

stephen at melbpc.org.au stephen at melbpc.org.au
Sat May 8 13:25:01 AEST 2010


EU Parliament calls for data rights charter

OUT-LAW News, 07/05/2010 http://www.out-law.com (and)
<http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-
//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A7-2010-0066+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN>


Internet users should be able to demand that their information is removed 
from company systems even if it was collected with their consent, the 
European Parliament has said. 

The Parliament has also called for a charter of individuals' internet 
rights.

The Parliament has adopted a new digital strategy called 2015.eu which 
outlines its ambitions for internet policy for the next five years and 
beyond. It has passed a resolution adopting the plan and demanding that 
the European Commission make it work.

The agenda says that a charter of citizens' and consumers' rights should 
be implemented by 2012 and that the Cybercrime Convention should be 
ratified by 2015.

"Citizens should be made aware of the privacy impact of their behaviour 
in an online context, and should be afforded the right to require the 
removal of personal data even when the data was initially collected with 
the consent of the data subject," it said. "The fight against cybercrime 
is another significant challenge. The effective enforcement of EU 
legislation in this field is often obstructed by cross-border legal 
issues, such as competent jurisdiction or applicable law."

Every house in the European Union should have access to cheap broadband 
connections within three years, according to the agenda, and to very high 
speed networks by 2020.

"Europe will only reap the benefits of this digital revolution if all EU 
citizens are mobilised and empowered to participate fully in the new 
digital society," said an explanatory statement to the policy. "This 
requires confidence by investors to make long term commitments, 
confidence by governments to move more strongly to e-government and 
confidence by citizens to use the digital services."

"A prerequisite for the creation of a European knowledge society is that 
all users have access to resilient and reliable wired and wireless 
broadband networks," it said. "Fixed and wireless technologies need to be 
widely available and interoperable to allow seamless high rate access to 
the Internet."

The Parliament's resolution has backed the policy's aims to have 100% 
broadband penetration at affordable levels by 2013 and ensuring that 75% 
of mobile phone subscribers are using third generation networks by 2015.

The policy also says that half of EU households should be connected to 
superfast broadband networks by 2015 and all households should be 
connected by 2020.

"A clear legal framework laying down the rights and duties of citizens 
while protecting personal data is essential," said a Parliament 
statement. "Preserving 'a fair balance between the right-holders’ rights 
and the general public’s access to content and knowledge' is also 
crucial.  Minors and young adults need special protection, say MEPs, and 
action is needed to improve digital security."

The agenda also calls on the Commission to ensure the swift passage of 
last year's controversial Telecoms Reform Package into the national law 
of the EU's 27 member states.

The UK has its own plans for superfast broadband policy. The Government 
said that it wanted superfast networks to connect 45% of UK households by 
2012 and 90% by 2017.

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Cheers,
Stephen



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