EU to Tighten Web Privacy Law, Risking Trans-Atlantic Dispute

The European Commission is planning a legal change next year that may prompt US Web giants like Google and Facebook to rethink how they store and process consumer data, raising the prospect of a trans-Atlantic dispute over Internet privacy.

The European justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, said she planned to insert wording into a revision of the Continent’s main data privacy law that would require non-E.U. companies to abide by Europe’s stricter rules on data collection or face fines and prosecution. Reding, who has criticized Facebook’s practice of storing and retaining logs of personal data, even when a user attempts to delete it, intends to add the tougher sanctions to Europe’s revised Data Protection Directive, which she expects to present in January.