Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Privacy Protection Outside the US

Laws and regulation on privacy varies amongst countries. Privacy protection is difficult to regulate for such reason. For example, if someone outside of the United States were to break a U.S. privacy law over the Internet, it is challenging for the United States to enforce punishment on that person due to the fact they are not held accountable to US laws in another country.

Countries that are working to protect their citizens rights on the Internet:

  • Germany
    • The German Constitutional Court ruled that government surveillance of personal computers was a violation of its citizens privacy rights in 2008
  • Canada
    • In 2004 passed a Personal information Protection and Electronic Document Act. This act regulates how private-sector organizations collect, use, and disclose personal information by using stricter privacy policies.
  • Europe
    • EU member nations are not  allowed totransfer personal data to countries with no similar privacy protection
To address the European Union's (EU) concern with the United State's lack of defense against Internet privacy; the U.S. Department of Congress (DOC) put into effect the consultation with European Commission the Safe Harbor Privacy Principals.  The U.S. also has a Safe Harbor framework with Switzerland.  The Safe Harbor frameworks help bridge the difference in views on privacy between countries, and allow U.S. Organizations to  conform with other's privacy laws (Safe Harbor Privacy Framework 1).  A public announcement to the DOC in writing, along with a statement published to their private policy is required of any organization participating in the Safe Harbor agreement. A few requirements of the organizations partaking in the agreement include:
  • Must inform Internet users of how, and when data will be collected on the Web and if it will be disclosed to third parties
  • Notify users of options for reducing the use and disclosure of such information.
  • Put in place precautions to shield the data out of harm's way.

Countries that have less privacy often have more restrictions:
  • China
    • Political websites are frequently censored
      • In April 2012, 16 blogs were shutdown and  6 people were arrested
  • Russia
    • Very strict on privacy-the court system attempted to ban YouTube in 2012 because of an ultra-nationalist video posted on their website

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1 comment:

  1. Deanna CoultryApril 12, 2013 at 1:22 PM

    This article is interesting, because you would think more countries would be working together to protect their citizens privacy. At the very least I would think that the United Nations countries would be working together.

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