IP: EU/USA Privacy Agreement

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: "McCabe, Kevin" <Kmccabe () visa com>
> To: "'farber () cis upenn edu'" <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: EU/USA Privacy Agreement
> Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 08:39:32 -0800
>
> Thought you find this interesting.
>
> Regards
> Kevin McCabe
>
> EU Deal With US Over Privacy
> The Daily Telegraph -- The European Union and the U.S. have reached an
> agreement over online privacy after two years of discussions began as a
> result of the EU's enactment of the European Data Protection Directive.  The
> directive prohibits the export of personal data to countries/regimes not
> doing enough to safeguard consumers' personal information.  While most
> European countries have a Data Protection Registrar or commissioner who sets
> standards for what can be done with confidential information, most American
> companies are left to police themselves. Early in the negotiations, the EU
> threatened to cut America off unless it did more to safeguard information
> U.S. companies were collecting about European net shoppers and their
> workers.  In order for the agreement to be reached, the U.S. had to agree to
> a set of "safe-harbor" principles that will dictate what companies must do
> to meet European standards on data protection. The draft of the safe harbor
> principles states that information can only be transferred or sold with the
> explicit permission of the person identified by that data.