For some time the rumor about Prism circulated. After confirmation of the rumor that United States has been gathering online information about foreigners through large websites, European Parliament decides to step up and protect Europeans. American companies such as Google were acting in secrecy and without permission from European officials, required Europeans to disclose information online. A law has been proposed to the European Parliament and led by Jan Philipp Albrecht. It is meant to force American companies such as Google and Yahoo to get their requests approved by European officials first before acting according to U.S. warrants. This would provide Europeans with protection from American law enforcement. The vote is supposed to be held on Thursday but can be postponed if there is enough opposition from U.S. or any of the large industries involved. U.S. has been successful before at lobbying against European officials and there is a chance they will succeed again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/technology/europe-moves-to-put-online-data-beyond-us-reach.html?_r=0

~Eduard Smetana