European authorities are to investigate violation over "basic rights in terms of transparency, control and risk". Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria's EU Commissioner said that Internet users pay for services with their personal data and exposure to advertisements.
"This amounts to a new kind of commercial exchange", Meglena Kuneva said for the Financial Times (FT).
European authorities are to investigate violation over "basic rights in terms of transparency, control and risk". They will check consumer profiling by online advertisers.
The investigation will lead to new rules for online advertisers, Internet service providers, and networking sites. EU officials are particularly concerned by the growing use of "deep-packet inspection" technologies that allow broadband providers to track online activity even after consumers have tried to control the use of cookies, which allow websites to monitor browsing history patterns, the FT explained.
EU officials say that people are often unaware of what data is being collected, and even if they want to quit, it may be virtually impossible to do so.
"We cannot afford foot dragging... If we fail to see an adequate response to consumers' concerns on the issue of data collection and profiling, we will not shy away from our duties", Kuneva will say in a speech, the FT reported.
Ms Kuneva will also point to the recent uproar over proposed changes to terms and conditions at popular social website, Facebook, under which users would have allowed the social networking site to use their content, even after this had been deleted from their ac-counts. A privacy advocate group threatened to file a formal complaint, and Facebook subsequently dropped the proposed changes.