EPIC: “In a letter to members of the European Parliament, a coalition of 23 leading U.S. consumer, privacy, and civil liberties groups expressed support for the new EU Data Protection Regulation. The coalition said although it “remain[s] optimistic that we will eventually update privacy laws in the United States,” until then, “the European Union offers the best prospect for the protection of Internet users around the globe.” The groups stated, “the US Congress has so far failed to take necessary steps to update US privacy law or to rein in the activities of the National Security Agency. As a consequence, consumers on both sides of the Atlantic remain at risk – our most sensitive data is too readily available for scrutiny and misuse.”The Data Protection Regulation is a comprehensive update of the 1995 Data Protection Directive that harmonizes current law and sets out new enforcement powers for privacy agencies. Last year, a similar coalition of organizations wrote in support of the Regulation. For more information, see EPIC: EU Data Protection Directive.”