EU Citizens: Defend Your Right to Privacy
Would you like your most private details sold for profit behind your back?
As Europeans we all enjoy a fundamental right to privacy. And major corporations, that want to spy on you and sell your personal information, just hate that fact!
That's why major US corporations like Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon and Ebay, as well as European banks and insurance companies, have unleashed their corporate lobbying hordes on our Members of European Parliament.
The European Unions Data Protection Regulations are currently being renewed and the
lobbyists are attempting to remove the safeguards governing the
collection and protection of our personal data and online behaviour.
Worryingly, European Committees are already bowing to the lobbyists pressure and a number of amendments have been added which effectively weaken these protections. In some cases the amendments, put forward by MEPs, have been copy/pasted word for word from the lobbyists recommendations.
Find links to the specific details at the bottom.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
This means, if we don't act now, it will be much easier for multinational corporations to collect and sell your personal information, without your explicit consent. This information can then be used to build a profile of everything about you; who you are, what you do, who you know, your medical history, sexual orientation, potentially everything you do, watch or read online and offline too. What about your library books, video library rentals, credit card purchases, medical test results, insurance claims, etc. All this comes under the heading of personal data.
WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
The stated aim of
this profiling is to expose you to advertising which has been
specifically designed to target you personally. However, this
information could be used by any company for anything, for example, your
health insurance premium could go up because you recently took up
skiing and payed for the equipment on your credit card. Worse still, that much information on everyone could very easily be used by governments or other elements for far more sinister purposes, such as silencing human rights activists and political dissidents, or preventing "inconvenient" information from being made public. Its not enough to say "I don't have anything to hide", we all suffer if the right to privacy is eroded.
WATCH THIS VIDEO on why privacy online is so important.
http://www.freenetfilm.org/themes/privacy
WHAT CAN I DO?
Step 1:
Sign the petition and take a stand to protect your fundamental right to privacy!
Only a strong public outcry can instill our elected representatives with the courage and will to stand up and protect the privacy of European Citizens.
Step 2:
Spread the petition far and wide
Post
this petition on Facebook and Twitter, send it through emails, or even
post a link on your favourite forums! Time is of the essence so get to
it!
Step 3:
Email your local MEPs
The crucial "Civil Liberties" (LIBE) committee, is scheduled to voteon this in April. Then it will be put to the whole parliament for a plenary vote. Email the members of this committee and your local MEPs and urge them to adopt the strongest safeguards possible against the abusive collection, processing and trade of our personal data.
Lets build a strong campaign and tell our MEPs to defend us from having our personal lives commercialised, by these corporate lobbyists.
Read the specifics here:
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/Privacy
Read another petition signed by 90 Leading Academics Here;
http://www.dataprotectioneu.eu/