Facebook and many other companies are updating their privacy policies and service terms to comply with European Union rules governing data and privacy. These major changes underscored the extent to which the European Union has emerged as the most powerful regulator of Silicon Valley, stepping in where Washington has failed — or simply been unwilling — to limit some of the United States’ most lucrative and politically influential companies. “The path to privacy in the United States has to be fought through Europe,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the ­Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy watchdog group. ambassador to the United States, said in an interview. But the political mood appears to be shifting the United States as well.

Source: Washington Post May 25, 2018 21:24 UTC