A group of American companies is attempting this week to persuade the European Union to relax its rules governing data protection, claiming they are bad for business. The 10 companies, who dub themselves the Global Privacy Alliance (GPA) and whose members include IBM, Oracle and VeriSign, believe that the EU has put too much emphasis on the protection of individuals' privacy, and not enough on ensuring the free flow of information between companies. . . .

A group of American companies is attempting this week to persuade the European Union to relax its rules governing data protection, claiming they are bad for business. The 10 companies, who dub themselves the Global Privacy Alliance (GPA) and whose members include IBM, Oracle and VeriSign, believe that the EU has put too much emphasis on the protection of individuals' privacy, and not enough on ensuring the free flow of information between companies.

The GPA wants several significant changes to be made to EU privacy laws--the simplification of the cross-border flow of data, possibly through industry self-regulation rather than legislation; the harmonization of EU privacy regulation between member states; the relaxation of restrictions on data sharing between affiliate companies, and the exclusion of 'business contact data' from such laws.

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