Organizations have sent out a joint letter just before the October 21 vote

Oct 17, 2013 12:23 GMT  ·  By

Civil rights groups represented by Access, Article 19, the Chaos Computer Club, Bits of Freedom, European Digital Rights (EDRi), the Foundation for Information Policy Research, Privacy International, the Open Rights Group and others have sent a joint letter to the European Parliament just before the vote on data protection and privacy in Europe.

The organizations ask the EP to restrict the collection of data to the minimum necessary, ensure privacy, and safeguard the right of individuals to delete their data from online services.

Civil rights groups are concerned that any “weakening” of the rules and principles will undermine the rights and freedom of European citizens.

The upcoming vote, scheduled for October 21, is particularly important, especially in the light of the recent government surveillance revelations.

“The choice is between clear, harmonised, predictable and enforceable rules that will benefit European citizens and businesses or unclear, unpredictable rules that will benefit nobody except data monopolies and lawyers," noted Joe McNamee, executive director of EDRi.