Are Google and Facebook Undermining Europe's Privacy Rules?

Less than a month before tough new European privacy rules take effect, there are growing concerns from regulators, publishers, and privacy watchdogs about the ways that two internet giants—Google and Facebook—plan to implement the regulations. The critics say the companies are squelching the promise of the new rules, and will leave European internet users no better off. In a blog, a top EU regulator warned of “attempts to game the system,” which could lead to a “travesty of at least the spirit of the new regulation, which aims to restore a sense of trust and control over what happens to our online lives.” Giovanni Buttarelli, who as supervisor of the European data protection authority is the continent’s top data-protection watchdog, said companies’ “take-it-or-leave it” propositions, which come with “a hint of menace” violate “at least the spirit of the new regulation.” He says European data-protection authorities have formed a new social-media group that will meet for the first time in mid-May.