Commenting on the exchange of views today in the European Parliament's civil liberties committee with Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, Jan Philipp Albrecht, European Parliament rapporteur/draftsperson for the new EU data protection regulation, stated:

"People don't want the police and secret services to have access to their personal data without authorisation. We need binding data protection standards that can be enforced against IT and social media companies like Google and Facebook as well as the authorities of third countries. Whoever processes the data of EU citizens or residents has to comply with EU law. Companies that transfer personal data from Europe are already violating existing EU data protection law. In addition to this there are still loopholes, since there is no uniform EU legislation and instead there are differences in legislative framework between Member States."

Jan Philipp Albrecht can be reached for questions or comments on the following number: +49 175 165 66 98.