Europe Digital Nominee Demands Stronger US Data Rules

Europe may suspend data-sharing agreements with the United States if American policy makers do not improve how Europeans’ online information is protected, according to Andrus Ansip, the nominee to lead Europe’s digital agenda.

His statements could have major implications for American tech giants like Google and Facebook, which routinely compile data generated by their European customers through web searches and other online activities. Those companies’ data policies have come under greater scrutiny in Europe in the wake of the revelations about spying by the National Security Agency, using online data. Ansip, 58, said that the United States still had to convince European lawmakers that it took a hard line on data protection.