DATA PROTECTION: DRAFT EU DIRECTIVE FACES CRUCIAL PARLIAMENTARY VOTE ON MAY 15.

The European Parliament Committee on Freedoms and Citizens' Rights agreed on April 18 to adopt its second-reading Opinion on the draft Directive on the protection of personal data in the electronic communications sector. Passed by a paper-thin majority, the amendment repeats the Parliament's first-reading view that the customer's personal data should not be stored by the electronic services provider any longer than is necessary for billing purposes. If the Member States use their right to restrict the Directive's provisions so as to...