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"The police, private companies, criminals - want to have as wide as possible access to our personal information - be it for legal or illegal purposes. The monitoring of individuals could turn our societies stealthily into a Big Brother society," Greek Socialist Stavros Lambrinidis warned at a hearing on data protection on the internet.

Mr Lambrinidis is preparing a report for fellow MEPs on the internet and fundamental rights. A key issue is the limits of consent of the user for the use of his or her data on the web - by "ticking a box to opt-in or opt-out...or an internet company just stating its terms" he said.
 
Do people actually read internet disclaimers?
 
Mr Lambrinidis told the hearing that: "Internet companies and governments clearly have a lot more power and knowledge than individual users". In addition, companies often offer more attractive terms for their services in exchange for lower privacy protection.
 
Due to this imbalance of power, limits of consent will be the "biggest battle line" in coming years in the internet security and privacy debate. For Mr Lambrinidis it is clear that nothing less than "unambiguous consent by the user" is going to be needed.
 
The privacy issue
 
The Lambrinidis report calls for better and more efficient protection of user data, such as the "right to obtain the permanent deletion of personal data located on internet websites".

"Twenty to 30 years ago no one knew which books or magazines I read, apart from the family, today this information is out there in the Internet," Lambrinidis said, referring to social networks that contain considerable amounts of private data accessible to everyone. European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx raised the issue of increasing awareness by young people, in particular, on sharing personal data.
 
A bill of rights for the Internet?
 
The web is not a "free playground", Hustinx said. His rule of thumb is that the rules and values we apply in the real world, apply to the web, too. Developing a bill of rights for the internet would however be a "useful tool to highlight existing rights in this framework".
 
The internet is a source of danger, but we should not get hung up on the "schizophrenia" of security, speakers said. While Internet criminality (such as identity theft) needs to be fought effectively, the right to access information must be maintained. Given the growing risk of e-illiteracy - "the new illiteracy of 21st Century"- cutting somebody's internet access would not be a proportionate measure, he said.
 
"Freedom needs to be regulated, yet we want to let the internet thrive", said Professor Stefano Rodotà from the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency, who is concerned about the "digital divide".
 
The Lambrinidis' report, is due to be discussed by the whole parliament in the week of 23 March.