Viv Reding attacks 'scaremongers' opposing her draft Data Protection bill

US technology companies who have being lobbying hard against Viviane Reding's proposed reform of the European Union's data protection law were criticised today by the Brussels' justice commissioner for deploying "scaremongering" tactics. Her bill, meanwhile, has been savaged by at least nine member states - according to the …

[Anonymous Coward]

All lobbying should be banned.

Reding is trying to protect us from the evil corporates who would screw us left and right if allowed too.

Alot of politicians are shareholders/stakeholders/board members of these corporates, so no wonder they oppose any plan to halt their cash flow by screwing us.

[Graham Marsden]

"Reding is trying to protect us from the evil corporates who would screw us left and right if allowed too"

You mean as opposed to the evil governments who, if they couldn't be lobbied by anyone, would screw us left and right *even more* than they do right now?

[Graham Marsden]

I think...

... some people rather missed the point of my last comment.

Lobbying is *ANYONE* being able to have a say on what their government does, be it by contacting their MP, getting up a petition or whatever.

If as "Obviously!" wanted, *all* such lobbying was banned, we would have an even less representative government than we do now!

[Bluenose]

And in the red corner

It's interesting that in this report and so many other discussions on this topic there is not a single reference as to what the providers of the data think about the proposals. Of course Viviane Reding will be out there saying that the proposal is focused on our protection yet that rings a little hollow when one sees how much data some people are willing to put on line.

Perhaps this might go easier between the EU, national govts and business if they actually went and spoke to real people to see where the actual issues around personal data usage lie and work to deliver a model in line with those views.

[Intractable Potsherd]

Re: And in the red corner

I understand what you are saying, but I really don't want Data Protection decided by the numpties who would tell everything for the chance to get entered into prize draw for the chance to win a £10 voucher for iTunes. I value my personal information highly, and I want my opinion to be valued higher than a teenager brought up on Facebook, thank you very much.

[Dan Paul]

RE: Obviously

Perhaps the better decision should be that all politicians and bureaucrats should be ground up and used for fertiliser. The people don't need protection from just laws, they need protection from the bastards that twist the law for their own personal gain.

The only laws regarding software and data should be "Caveat Emptor". Let the buyer beware.

[Will Godfrey]

Clearly the ripoff merchants are getting scared.

That's good.

[Don Jefe]

If you comply

All is fine. Regardless of what the law says, you never want to hear that from a government.

[Invidious Aardvark]

In November last year, the House of Commons Justice Select Committee blasted the directive. It said that while data protection law in the EU needed a shakeup some of the plans "do not allow for flexibility or discretion for businesses or other organisations which hold personal data, or for data protection authoritiesdo not allow us to incorporate the reforms in such a way that we can still choose to ignore them and do whatever we want with the data we and our business friends are accumulating".

FTFY.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not news....

I went to the ICO Data Protection Conference this week and one of the keynote speakers was Francoise Le Bail, DG for Justice at the European Commission and essentially Reding's deputy.

The gist of her talk was that while the original directive was very prescriptive they understood that national governments felt it needed tweaking and were already negotiating with various governments to amend the directive.

The revised version is due out in the next couple of months.