Media News - Thursday, December 02, 2010
Germany unveils plan to tighten Internet privacy
Germany's interior minister on Wednesday unveiled a draft law to tighten
rules on Internet privacy, sparked by the uproar this summer over the
Google Street View mapping service. The draft is a combination of
self-regulation by Google and other companies, and new rules that would
make it illegal to gather certain kinds of personal information.
Web services that assemble personal profiles would only be allowed if
the people being profiled gave their consent or a there was a compelling
reason for making such information public. The new law, if passed, would amend the current Federal Privacy Act and
create a central online repository for geo-spatial and geo-location
information. Also on Wednesday, German tech trade group BITKOM submitted its proposal
on industry self-regulation with the group's president, August-Wilhelm
Scheer, formally presenting a codex on data protection to de Maiziere in
Berlin. BITKOM represents more than 1,350 companies in Germany, including major players
like Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Post and
others. Among its suggestions, BITKOM offered to set up a single website where
German residents could access what geo-data is made available about
them, and what rights they have to correct or request its deletion.
Users could also submit similar requests by postal mail, or call a
government-run hotline to get questions answered.
But data protection commissioners harshly criticized the draft law,
especially the self-regulation aspect. They said the rules did not go
far enough, nor did they have teeth. (Deutsche Welle)
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