For instance, chapter 2.5 which deals with the protection of citizen's rights in the information society:
"When it comes to assessing the individual's privacy in the area of freedom, security and justice, the right to freedom is overarching. The right to privacy and the right to the protection of personal data are set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Union must therefore respond to the challenge posed by the increasing exchange of personal data and the need to ensure the protection of privacy. The Union must secure a comprehensive strategy to protect data within the EU and in its relations with other countries. In that context, it should promote the application of the principles set out in relevant EU instruments on data protection and the 1981 Council of Europe Convention on data protection as well as promoting accession to that convention."

Probably, you would think this paragraph means that the Commission is doing its best to protect your private data against the forces of evil.
Ha! You have got it all wrong!


Just last Monday 27 June, in what was presented as a major step in the "war on terror," Mrs. Cecilia Malmström, the Commissioner for "Home Affairs," signed a treaty with the US for the transfer of all your private banking data to the US authorities.

So now, every money transfer that you make, to your son, your daughter, your old mother, your grocery store, to anyone at all, every transfer is henceforth under scrutiny from the US authorities. All talk about guarantees for fair use of these data is meaningless. Certainly, the US does not care an iota about promises made to other governments.

individual

As commonly used, an individual is a person or any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a person." (q.v. "The problem of proper names"). From the seventeenth century on, individual indicates separateness, as in individualism.[1] Individuality is the state or quality of being an individual; a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs, goals, and desires.