The European Union will crack down on data privacy abuse

THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) is set to issue proposals to tighten online privacy in the wake of Apple's and Google's location data logging debacle.

After seeing misuse and hijacking of private geo-location data, the EU will put its foot down and has organised an advisory body to lay out guidelines for clamping down on offenders.

The advisory body, called the "Article 29 Working Party", will publish its proposals and the guidelines will be just that, guidelines. They won't be enshrined in law, but it is a great first step by the EU and it should provide impetus for other countries or governing bodies to follow suit.

Dubbed the alliance of European national regulators, the body "will say that geo-location data has to be considered as personal data," an EU official told the Wall Street Journal. "The rules on personal data apply to them."

"We're looking at... localisation data services, behavioural advertising, basically anything that's dealing with new technology," a spokesman for the European Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding told the WSJ.

The EU was too diplomatic to name specific companies, but we're not. The proposal announcement came as shiny toy maker Apple had to release an IOS 4.3.3 update to patch a location data tracking 'bug' in its Ithings. It was also discovered that Iphones have been recording punters' WiFi data.

The other big offender is Google, on at least two counts. The search giant was caught harvesting personal data from unencrypted WiFi networks using its Streetview cars. Google's Android OS was also found to be collecting location data as well. In fact, the EU team is probably well aware that lawmakers in the US sent missives to six companies, taking them to task for breaching users' privacy. Those companies include Apple, Google and Microsoft. µ