ReadWriteEnterprise

There were two big expectations from this morning's release of the initial draft of data protection regulations from the European Commission, both of which were built up through quite a bit of fanfare from EC Vice President Viviane Reding's office last November. One was that the Commission would "stick it to" the U.S. Patriot Act, the law that enables American law enforcement agencies access to private data elsewhere in the world, under controlled conditions. Another was that citizens of E.U. member states would be granted a "right to be forgotten," to order online firms collecting personal data about them to purge their records.

The initial draft of these new Data Protection regulations shows moderation on both counts.