The European Parliament will increase the level of privacy in social networks
Is Facebook and MySpace enough to protect user data? In any case, soon they will need to do it better on the territory of the European Union. The team of experts has developed a social media manual ( PDF ) that will ensure compliance with online privacy by strict laws.
The guideline was the EU Data Protection Directive 1995 , which, among other regulatory acts, prohibits:
However, until recently, these norms did not always work as they should. For example, companies that retain personal information should use it for legitimate purposes, which, of course, can be interpreted differently.
The proposed operational manual will require a lot of effort from sites such as Facebook and MySpace that cannot abandon the European user base and at least try to bend under new standards - even Microsoft could not convince the European Parliament (remember the story with IE preinstalled).
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According to the manual, social networks should:
Moreover, social networks should delete accounts that have not been active for a long period, as well as personal information of users after they have deleted their accounts.
The last point is particularly interesting in view of the recent scandal associated with Facebook. The administration of the service somehow let slip that owns any information that ever got on their servers. After some time, Facebook apologized and changed the terms of service, giving the opportunity to take part in decisions regarding the introduction of new ToS . However, one thing became clear - Facebook still reserves the last word in making ambiguous decisions.
Thus, it is good that soon there will be a supervisory authority that will monitor compliance with online privacy. The new EU leadership will make the life of social networks an order of magnitude more difficult, but it will have a lasting positive effect on the confidentiality of user data.
The guideline was the EU Data Protection Directive 1995 , which, among other regulatory acts, prohibits:
- Store personal information without consumer permission
- Read staff mail
- Share personal information of users without their consent.
However, until recently, these norms did not always work as they should. For example, companies that retain personal information should use it for legitimate purposes, which, of course, can be interpreted differently.
The proposed operational manual will require a lot of effort from sites such as Facebook and MySpace that cannot abandon the European user base and at least try to bend under new standards - even Microsoft could not convince the European Parliament (remember the story with IE preinstalled).
')
According to the manual, social networks should:
- Set user data protection to the highest possible level.
- Allow user to restrict data available to third parties.
- Limit the use and access to sensitive information (race, religion, political views)
- Limit the use of behavioral data
Moreover, social networks should delete accounts that have not been active for a long period, as well as personal information of users after they have deleted their accounts.
The last point is particularly interesting in view of the recent scandal associated with Facebook. The administration of the service somehow let slip that owns any information that ever got on their servers. After some time, Facebook apologized and changed the terms of service, giving the opportunity to take part in decisions regarding the introduction of new ToS . However, one thing became clear - Facebook still reserves the last word in making ambiguous decisions.
Thus, it is good that soon there will be a supervisory authority that will monitor compliance with online privacy. The new EU leadership will make the life of social networks an order of magnitude more difficult, but it will have a lasting positive effect on the confidentiality of user data.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/62904/
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