Digital Privacy

Obamas “Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World: A Framework For Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Economy”, better known as simply “privacy bill of rights” has made some headlines this year. Recently, since it was one of the topics at the EU Conference on Privacy and Protection of Personal Data held on March 19th, both in Washington DC and Brussels. The aim of the bill is to increase the privacy of consumers on the Internet and get closer to a common international privacy standard. Currently, the EU is known to have much stricter privacy regulation laws than the US and is working on a proposal for new data protection regulations. Now, the Obama administration created a draft for a new kind of privacy regulation to protect the privacy of consumers. However, critics state one major problem with the plan: It won’t become a law anytime soon. Instead, it is planned to create a more or less voluntary code of conduct that big corporations should commit themselves to. If they do, the FTC has the authority to enforce this commitment. This shows fundamentally different approaches to privacy protection in the US and EU. In the EU privacy is a human right while in the US it is more of a consumer right than anything.

However, I do find arguments in favor of this approach, this code of conduct, interesting. In an interview with a US civil liberty group it is argued that in an election year, it is hard to pass a law, which brings tougher regulations to corporations. Further, one problem with European privacy law, it is stated, is avoided: European law stated “protect peoples privacy” and nobody knows what that exactly means. Instead, the US approach gives this responsibility to the corporations: They have to define what it exactly means and then stick to it. And this is enforceable by the FTC. I personally think it is a nice touch that they want a “do not track button” in browsers, so consumers can turn off cookie tracking. This is one of the few, very concrete measures for privacy protection. I think that this bill is a big step forward in privacy protection in the US and that eventually it will find its way into a law. Until then, this privacy bill of rights is a good start: Amazon, Apple, Google, HP, Microsoft, and Research In Motion already confirmed that they would abide by new privacy principles. And it is definitely not the worst kind of press Obama can wish for in his election year.

Link: Full text of the privacy bill of rights
Link: Full text of the EU proposal