As European lawmakers vote on a landmark data protection law, European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes tells SPIEGEL that both governments and private companies are disregarding the Continent’s out-of-date business models and infrastructure.The European Parliament on Monday is set to hold its first vote on a sweeping package of data protection laws, strengthened in the wake of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaks on spying by American and British authorities.The package creates a first-ever unified data protection law for all of the European Union’s 500 million citizens, scrapping the previous patchwork of regulations defined by each of the bloc’s 28 member states. It is supported by privacy advocates, and by European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes.SPIEGEL spoke to Ms. Kroes about how the Snowden leaks have affected Europe, and about the slow pace at which Europe is modernizing its telecommunications infrastructure..
www.spiegel.de/international/europe/interview-with-european-commissioner-for-digital-agenda-neelie-kroes-a-929055.html