data-protection

AGAINST EU data protection rules

FOR EU data protection rules

1. INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

Individuals need to take greater responsibility for the personal data they upload online. Nobody is forcing individuals to upload personal information to social networking sites. The new EU data protection rules promise to deliver more than is practical. By taking responsibility away from individuals and replacing it with a legal framework, they may create unreasonable expectations for privacy and a false sense of safety and security online.

1. MORE EFFICIENT

The existing rules are confusing, with different legal jurisdictions claiming their (often contradictory) laws all apply at the same time. Under the new rules, businesses would follow one set of data protection rules: the rules of their country of establishment within the EU.

2. IMPRACTICAL

The so-called “right to be forgotten” is a much-heralded part of the new data protection rules, but is it realistic? Once something has been published online then it can be cached, archived, reposted and replicated in a thousand different places across the internet. At what point does privacy become censorship? How much should the “right to be forgotten” be balanced with everybody else’s “right to remember”.

2. NEW TECHNOLOGY

Technology moves fast. Much of the existing set of data protection rules was drawn up in the nineties, before the current trend for social networking and high-speed internet had taken off.

3. ONEROUS

The cost of implementing the new rules will fall disproportionately on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Larger companies will be better equiped to absorb the costs of the regulations. As SMEs account for 60% of Europe’s GDP, do we want to throw even more red tape at them during a recession?

3. FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Despite what critics might argue, the new rules in no way threaten freedom of speech. Instead, it strengthens individual rights by clarifying exactly what rights an individual has with regards to the data they have personally uploaded. It does not grant individuals the right to order others to take down information they disagree with.