Angela Merkel Tells US Firms To Meet German Privacy Rules 153
judgecorp writes "Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has given her backing to proposed European privacy regulations and demanded that U.S. firms should meet German privacy rules. Merkel's stance comes as U.S. firms lobby against strict E.U. privacy proposals — but also follows revelations from Edward Snowden through German newspaper Der Spiegel, that the German authorities are helping the NSA spy on German citizens."
Only applies to EU citizens, presumably (Score:5, Interesting)
My reading on that is that *if* the new European Commission data privacy rules get passed, then Germany would expect US firms to abide by those rules *for citizens of the EU*. Seems quite reasonable, actually.
Basically it's just an extension of the fact that those same US firms already have to comply with existing privacy rules in various countries around the world. (I seem to recall Google having to blur faces and license plates when it launched Street View in Canada...)
Re:About Time (Score:4, Interesting)
This is Merkel. She's the epitome of leading from the back. First, she checks where the masses are running, then she overtakes them, puts herself on the front of the movement and screams "follow me!"
So by definition it takes her a while to find out where everyone is running, she really doesn't want to start early and follow... erh, lead an agenda that doesn't have enough voters behind it.
This is only possible at the moment (Score:4, Interesting)
They can only do this while the US company has some sort of presence in Europe.
As internet speeds increase, the need for a physical presence will disappear.
Good luck getting Google or Facebook to comply if all their datacenters and business locations are only in the US.
Europeans will still want to use the services, so that will be interesting.
Re:Only applies to EU citizens, presumably (Score:4, Interesting)
What I'd really like to know is whether Merkel's rule only apply to US corporations. In other words, will France's DGSE's collection of the same information as that the USG is collecting through US Corporations get a free pass? From the info I can find, it seems so...