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The Package of rules governing the Internet and telecoms sectors proposed by the European Commission in view of supporting competition and providing clearer information and a wider range of services to consumers was approved by the European Parliament on 24 September 2008, in the first reading.

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Google announced in June that it had struck a deal with Yahoo, so it would sell ads on Yahoo website in return for a share of the profits. The EU anti-competition authorities confirms that they are investigating the deal between the two majors in the online advertising.

The major competitors claimed that this new deal gives a dominant position for Google.

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Following a very strong opposing movement, the decree allowing the creation of EDVIGE file has been abandoned by the French Government, but it will be replaced by a modified project called now EDVIRSP.

On 1 July 2008, the French Government had announced a project creating a huge database, EDVIGE (Exploitation documentaire et valorisation de l'information générale - Documentary exploitation and valorisation of general information) which would have systematically gathered information on any person having applied for or exercised a political, union or economical mandate or playing a significant institutional, economical, social or religious part as well as information on

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Following the demands of EU privacy protection authorities, Google announced on 9 September it would reduce the search data retention time from 18 to 9 months.

This is the second reduction Google applies in the past 2 years, having already reduced the retention period from indefinite to 18 months in 2007. However, the company still does not meet the Article 29 Working Party's recommendations.

On 4 April 2008, the Article 29 Working Party published an opinion on search engines, recommending a maximum retention period of 6 months and reaffirming the applicability of the European data protection law.

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It has been revealed that the Spanish local police of Sada (Galicia) was keeping an illegal database with information and pictures of people, gathered during night patrols.

On 14 August 2008, a counsellor, a local police officer and a Guardia Civil sergeant discovered in an office of the USC (Unidade de Seguridade Cidadán - City Security Unit) an archive with the photographs and personal data of people identified during night patrols.

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UK consumer watchdog, the National Consumer Council (NCC), together with other consumer groups want the European Commission to force companies to publicly admit when they lose customer data.

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The European Parliament (EP) discussed on 2 September 2008 the draft directives to reform the EU framework on electronic communications (telecom package). Besides the debates on the telecom issues, the MEPs have discussed the role of the ISPs in combating Intellectual Property Rights violations and the modifications to the ePrivacy directive in order to include more provisions on consumer protection and data security.

Some of the amendments that were passed by the EP Committees were challenged by some of the speakers, beliving they could endanger the principle of the neutrality of the Internet.

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A new secret report, made available by Statewatch, drafted by the "Future Group" of Interior and Justice Ministers from six EU member states (Germany, France, Sweden, Portugal, Slovenia, and Czech Republic) suggests a series of proposals to boost EU integration in policing and intelligence-gathering, including the creation an EU-US Area of cooperation for "freedom, security and justice."

The group's controversial proposals are certain to trigger major disputes, proposing that the EU members states should pool information in a central intelligence unit, creating a network of "anti-terrorist centres", standardising police surveillance techniques and extending the sharing