From Reuters:
Germany's foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador to Berlin to discuss the issue, an event diplomats said was almost unprecedented in the past 60 years.
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The revelations could have an impact on major legislative and trade initiatives between the United States and the European Union, with some German lawmakers saying negotiations over an EU-U.S. free-trade agreement should be suspended.
Germany's foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador to Berlin to discuss the issue, an event diplomats said was almost unprecedented in the past 60 years.
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The revelations could have an impact on major legislative and trade initiatives between the United States and the European Union, with some German lawmakers saying negotiations over an EU-U.S. free-trade agreement should be suspended.
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DATA PRIVACY RULES
The most immediate impact of the furor could be to encourage member states to back tougher data privacy rules currently being drafted by the European Union. The European Parliament this week backed legislation that would greatly toughen EU data protection rules that date from 1995. The new rules would restrict how data collected in Europe by firms such as Google and Facebook is shared with non-EU countries, introduce the right of EU citizens to request that their digital traces be erased, and impose fines of 100 million euros ($138 million) or more on rule breakers.
The United States is concerned that the regulations, if they enter into law, will raise the cost of handling data in Europe. Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and others have lobbied hard against the proposals. [Here, Public Occurrences wishes to add to these reports by the Post and Reuters. We wish to add the following remarks: FUCK THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! FUCK GOOGLE! FUCK YAHOO!...! and FUCK MICROSOFT!] [AND FUCK "OTHERS!"]
