EU’s Privacy Monitor Visits U.S. Tech “In Peace”

After meetings in Silicon Valley last week, the European Union official responsible for monitoring what it sees as the privacy threat posed by new technologies declared that he had encountered “illuminated people and bad guys.”

Giovanni Buttarelli, the European Union’s Data Protection Supervisor, was in town as part of his effort to convince American startups to proactively adopt privacy policies that give consumers the ability to see their personal data and control how it is used. For instance, he wants companies that secretly rate their customers — as Uber does with its users — to disclose the data so consumers can correct inaccuracies.