It's not the first time the US lobbyists have managed to get to a committee, that doesn't necessarily mean they will win the parliamentary vote. In fact, this could all be part of the game. Up until recently the EU parliament favored even stronger privacy protections.
The more worrying issue is they got to the EU council of ministers (i.e., representing the individual governments). The current Irish presidency seems to be completely bought and paid for by the US, they really don't give a flying fuck about the rights of EU citizens, and have put the council on a direct collision course with the parliament.
Personally, I find it utterly disgusting that US companies and the US government are lobbying EU politicians to surrender their voters' civil rights.
I hate a lot of the pressure for lax standards on data breech notifications. I do have questions about whether the pressure on privacy laws is about reasonable things (e.x. Don't be like California -- or at least don't prosecute the internet based on laws from 1971 that should have been modified 4 times over by now) or not. I personally try and create reasonable data rules based heavily on user opt-in and sensible standards that allow users to retrieve relevant information. Ideally we could get something resembling a world standard here that countries agreed to comply to as a high-bar so that companies could set-up a best practice for user data that would be usable worldwide. I think most of my problems with user privacy laws are not relating to quality of privacy but rather fragmentation across nations/regions/markets. I want a strong standard here as both a user and a creator, but I also want one that doesn't slow the spread of good technologies across the globe.
The more worrying issue is they got to the EU council of ministers (i.e., representing the individual governments). The current Irish presidency seems to be completely bought and paid for by the US, they really don't give a flying fuck about the rights of EU citizens, and have put the council on a direct collision course with the parliament.
Personally, I find it utterly disgusting that US companies and the US government are lobbying EU politicians to surrender their voters' civil rights.