EU Demands Better Privacy for Facebook Users

The EU is demanding enhanced privacy on Facebook and other social networking sites, calling for a “right to be forgotten." The justice commissioner will unveil rules before summer demanding, among other things, that strict privacy settings be the default for users. Sites like Facebook “can't think they're exempt just because they have their servers in California or do their data processing in Bangalore,” says a spokesman. “If they're targeting EU citizens, they will have to comply with the rules.”

The proposed rules would give national monitoring groups the right to investigate and prosecute firms, the Guardian reports. “People shall have the right—and not only the possibility—to withdraw their consent to data processing,” says the commissioner. And when that consent is withdrawn, “there shouldn't even be a ghost of your data left in some server somewhere," says the spokesman. "It's your data and it should be gone for good.” (More European Union stories.)