European commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship, Viviane Reding, who is currently preparing the new laws , warned that the EU would not hesitate to take action against non-EU companies that broke local laws on data collection and retention. “Stakeholders at a recent public consultation on data protection asked me to make clear that our data protection rules also apply to data retention. Storage of data is already included in the broad definition of ‘processing’ but the general public is unaware that processing includes storing/retention.” Reding explained that EU law would be based on four central principles.
