With more and more Europeans sharing increasing amounts of personal data online, public authorities and privacy advocates are struggling to ensure that social networking sites and search engines are managing that information appropriately. European Voice reports on recent responses on both sides of the Atlantic to actions by social networking and Internet search giants that have raised privacy concerns. Efforts by the European Commission to convince providers to sign on to "safer social networking principles" has had "patchy progress," the report states, and European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx has advocated for new legislation to give users better control over their data. As European Commissioner Viviane Reding put it, "self-regulation is effective only when it is properly enforced." (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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