European Commission: Data-losing companies may be forced to spill to public

[jkouns <jkouns () opensecurityfoundation org>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/28/data_breach_law/

Data-losing companies may be forced to spill to public
European Commission mulls beef-up of law

The European Commission will consider passing new laws forcing 
organisations that lose personal data to go public with that loss. The 
Commission has until now been opposed to the creation of wide-ranging 
data breach notification requirements.

The Commission and European Council insisted that a data breach 
notification in a recent Telecoms Package of reforms only applies to 
telecoms companies. The European Parliament had attempted to widen its 
scope. That Package is currently under negotiation on the single issue 
of file sharer disconnections after the Parliament conceded ground on 
the data breach issue.

The Commission has now said that it will investigate the passing of new 
EU-wide legislation forcing all kinds of organisation to notify any data 
breaches to the relevant authorities and the people affected.

"The Telecoms Reform has put the issue of mandatory notification of 
personal data breaches firmly on the European policy agenda," said 
Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding at a meeting last week 
organised by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). "The 
reformed telecoms package, now awaiting final agreement, will establish 
rules concerning the prevention, management and reporting of data 
breaches in the electronic communications sector."

"The Commission will go a step further to extend the debate to generally 
applicable breach notification requirements and work on possible 
legislative solutions. This will be done in close consultation with the 
European Data Protection Supervisor and other stakeholders."

[..]
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