Is The U.S. Lagging Behind?
     Murray Luening, a spokesman with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, a regional office that oversees information and privacy laws, said Canada's national legislation took its cue from the strict European Data Privacy Directive. The directive bans the flow of information to countries that Europe deems do not have "adequate" privacy protections. In part to bring its privacy policies up to European Union standards, Canada crafted its own privacy legislation. But Luening said that eventually Canada would have adopted a privacy standard to ensure Canadian confidence in e-commerce. Business groups there have been lobbying for such legislation since 1995.
     "As businesses start to see consumers voting with their feet, you'll see businesses more and more concerned with privacy," Luening predicted.
     David Banisar, deputy director of London-based Privacy International, praised Canada's industry groups for supporting the policy, saying that companies realized that the legislation would benefit them in the long run. Banisar, located in Washington, DC, said in this respect, Canada is ahead of the United States in terms of privacy policies.
     "There, the political will has formed to bring about privacy laws and legislation," he said.

Privacy Issues Resonate Globally
     The drum beat for privacy legislation is sounding in other countries. The Australian Federal Government has introduced a measure that addresses Web site operators' use of personal information. The Privacy Amendment Bill 2000 sets up a standard for Australian businesses on how they handle personal information and could go into effect July 1, 2001. Banisar said that although the legislation is a step in the right direction, the policy is weak and doesn't clarify how such a law would be enforced.
     Moves in Argentina to ban the transfer of personal data outside the country are up again for consideration, Banisar said. Business interests in the United States, such as the Direct Marketing Association, had strongly opposed the plan when it was pending in early 1999 and called on member companies in Argentina to lobby against it.
     Chile also has taken steps on privacy legislation and passed a comprehensive privacy law in September 1999. Broad privacy laws are also in place in Eastern European countries such as the Ukraine and Albania, he said.
     Japan has been mulling a privacy law since a government advisory panel introduced a report in late 1999, calling on the government to introduce a law in 2001 that outlines basic rules for personal information. The law would combine self-governing rules and law for credit research, medical and telecommunications industries. Elsewhere in Asia, countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand have comprehensive privacy laws.

Nations Look To EU Privacy Directive
     Where privacy laws have developed, most are modeled after the EU Data Privacy Directive, explains David Sorkin, a law professor who specializes in privacy law at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago. And in many cases, those laws already existed at the local level, and then were adopted at a national level, he said. Sorkin said he thinks that counties, including the United States, eventually would adopt omnibus privacy regulations.
     Scott Cooper, a government affairs manager with Hewlett-Packard, predicted that more countries would engage in cross-border agreements, such as the safe harbor agreement between the European Union and the United States. Under the agreement reached between Brussels and Washington in March after years of political hard-slogging, U.S. companies voluntarily entering the "safe harbor" will be deemed as providing adequate privacy protection. The European Union member states still have to approve the agreement, and the states have delayed until May a vote on data privacy protections. Cooper said to avoid a patchwork of laws, countries could strike agreements like the one between the EU and U.S.
     "We need more cross-border resolutions," he said. "You are going to have to have harmonization."
     Mike Hintze, a corporate attorney for Microsoft, said the rising tide of national laws on privacy could impact the United States and make privacy legislation inevitable. But Hintze said that this legislation might not be necessary. As companies such as Microsoft, which operate worldwide, meet the privacy requirements in different countries, Hintze said an international standard could be created without legislation.
     "I think the sides (business and privacy advocates) will move closer together," he said.
     Privacy International's Banisar said that despite the U.S. industry's push for self-regulation, laws in other countries could force the debate further on Capitol Hill.
     "The U.S. no longer has the luxury of staying silent on the issue," he said.
- by Caroline Broder