The EU began its overhauling of its privacy laws last November, with new legislation expected to give greater powers to the end consumer, and stricter penalties for those who break the rules.

Though Facebook was not directly mentioned, it was made clear by the speech Reding gave in Brussels today that Facebook was in her sights.

The European Union has enabled strict data protection rules, far greater than that of the United States, since 1998 when all European countries were told by EU directive to apply new legislation.

For European companies and US wholly owned subsidiary companies in Europe to send data from within the EU to the United States must adhere to the mutually agreed Safe Harbour principles, which dictate data privacy and security regarding to data transfer.

However, the United States has a long way to go before the European Commission deems it a fully compliant nation with its standards in regards to privacy.

Until the US legislates, all the Commission can do is legislate itself and force privately held companies like Google and Facebook to comply, to retain its presence in the region.