By Martha Moss - 14th April 2009
Information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding has called for more to be done to control privacy online.
Reding used a video posted to her website on Tuesday to warn that the internet could "turn into a jungle" if action is not taken to control the use of personal information.
She said the commission would take action against member states failing to respect privacy when using new technologies, such as behavioural advertising.
This strategy uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display to that individual.
Questions have been raised about social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace using radio frequency identification (RFID) smart chips needed to make privacy protection a "high priority", she said.
"Europeans must have the right to control how their personal information is used," she said.
"European privacy rules are crystal clear: a person's information can only be used with their prior consent.
"We cannot give up this basic principle, and have all our exchanges monitored, surveyed and stored in exchange for a promise of 'more relevant' advertising.
"I will not shy away from taking action where an EU country falls short of this duty.
RFID smart chips sending radio signals would only be economically valuable "if they are used by the consumer and not on the consumer", she added.
"No European should carry a chip in one of their possessions without being informed precisely what they are used for, with the choice to remove or switch it off at any time."
Reding also hinted that the commission would introduce new regulations to ensure the protection of children online.
She said that social networking providers should make the profiles of minors private by default and unavailable to internet search engines.
"The European commission has already called on social networking sites to deal with minors' profiles carefully, by means of self-regulation," she added.
"I am ready to follow this up with new rules if I have to."
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