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European Union

New data protection rules take effect

The European Union's new data protection laws came into effect on Friday, with Brussels saying the changes will protect consumers from being like "people naked in an aquarium". Brussels insists that the laws will become a global benchmark for the protection of people's online information, particularly in the wake of the Facebook data harvesting scandal. Companies can be fined up to $24 million or four percent of annual global turnover for breaching the strict new data rules for the EU, a market of 500 million people.