European businesses need simpler privacy rules, including a single data...

European businesses need simpler privacy rules, including a single data protection law, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Tuesday at an EU data protection and privacy conference in Brussels. As part of her rethink of the data protection directive, Reding said she'll propose making companies subject to the data protection authority in the EU countries of their main establishment, she said. But this can’t be done at the expense of individuals, whose rights must be properly protected, she said. The new data protection measure, to be unveiled in January, will update the 1995 directive to new technological challenges, she said. It will include easier access to a person’s own data and better data portability so users can more simply transfer their data between providers, she said. Reding said she also wants the legislation to “establish the famous right to be forgotten.” In a world of increased connectivity and unlimited search and storage, if users no longer want their information stored and there’s no good reason to keep it, the data should be removed, she said. Solid rules are good for consumers but also benefit Internet companies by creating legal certainty that boosts user trust, she said. Data transfers are important not only in the commercial world but also for police and judicial cooperation, she said. Current law only sets standards when data are shifted between EU countries, not when they're treated inside a particular nation, she said. Data protection reform should contain the same rules for cross-border and domestic processing for law enforcement purposes in order to improve the free flow of data to fight crime, she said. The EU is doing its job but it also must count on others to take data protection seriously, Reding said. More companies are offering cloud computing services that stay in Europe and, while this is to be encouraged, it can’t be the only solution to protecting privacy, she said. Data must flow freely between the EU and U.S., and “it doesn’t make much sense for us to retreat from each other,” she said. Reding welcomed U.S. bipartisan efforts on data protection announced last year but said she has since learned that it only envisages voluntary codes of conduct based on multi-stakeholder consultation. “I hope I got it wrong -- because I am worried that US ’self-regulation’ will not be sufficient to achieve full interoperability between the EU and US,” she said in a written speech. Trans-Atlantic relations could also do with a better approach to law enforcement, she said. Europeans must be confident their rights are respected whenever their personal information is transmitted in Europe or to the U.S. for police purposes, she said. Reding said she hoped Europe’s reform of privacy regulation “can be an inspiration” for such changes in the U.S. and elsewhere.