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The data breach notification provision is part of the ePrivacy Directive that is currently being debated by the EU.

However, speaking to journalists in London, MEP Malcolm Harbour said he was confident that the data breach legislation will be approved.

"It will be mandatory for service providers to disclose to customers if their personal data has been breached," he claimed.

"The

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[European] Commission said that this will now become a requirement. The [European] Parliament took a rather dim view of this rather sketchy proposal. [But] the general view now is that it's a practical and workable proposal," he said.

The data breach provision would apply to any "public web service", according to Harbour, be that an internet service provider or online retailer.

It wouldn't include incidents such as the Government's infamous HMRC disc fiasco, however, which saw the personal details of 25 million child benefit claimants go astray.

The ePrivacy Directive is being introduced with a raft of new electronic communications legislation, that will see three-year "free" laptop deals quashed and mobile networks forced to transfer customers' phone numbers within a single working day.