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Privacy A Growing International Concern
by William New
Countries are working on a variety of fronts to improve online privacy protections. For instance, the United States is working with other members of the Asia Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) to help nations form better online privacy practices. At a late February meeting of the APEC online privacy forum held in Mexico, participating economies agreed to complete a questionnaire on the state of play of privacy regulations, hopefully in time for the August meeting of the e-commerce group in Acapulco, Mexico. Mexico currently is APEC chair.
According to a Commerce Department official, at the Feb. 22 privacy forum a number of countries offered details on their progress, including Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan and the United States. More than 100 participants heard public and private sector perspectives.
The economies also showed a strong interest in information sharing, and plans were discussed for a mostly internal APEC Web site, where information would be available on developed countries' privacy initiatives, the official said.
Also at the meeting, discussions were held about self-regulation by businesses. The official cited three approaches to privacy: statutory, self-regulatory and a mixture of both. While the privacy debate is often politicized, the official said, the Asia-Pacific region is benefiting from watching the United States and other nations develop mixed approaches.
The meeting accentuated the variety of approaches to privacy protection that are emerging. The group is in the process of adopting a less detailed form of the principles developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Governments, businesses and consumer groups participated in the event. On the business side, the Global Business Dialogue on E-commerce presented its view on principles.
The e-commerce steering group hopes to see agreement on consumer protection principles by the fall. It will first have to clear the APEC senior officials meeting in August.
The U.S. government team included officials from the Commerce and State departments and the FTC, with Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Technology Michelle O'Neill at Commerce leading the delegation. The team focused on working with countries on developing their approaches, with encouragement to avoid heavy-handed regulations. The United States favors less regulation of businesses on privacy matters, while the European Union has taken a strong government role in establishing a data privacy directive.
But the European Union is not a part of APEC since it does not border the Pacific Ocean. "Certainly, [APEC is] an opportunity for us to have an informal discussion about the pillars of the approach we're taking," the Commerce official said. "Is it easier to have that discussion without the EU in the room? Probably."
EU Data Privacy Commissioners Visit Washington
The national level data privacy commissioners of European Union member countries hit Washington last week, meeting with a number of U.S. government officials. The contingent, led by Italian Stefan Rodota, met with Commerce undersecretary for international trade Grant Aldonas, as well as State Department officials, members of Congress including Rep. Clifford Stearns, R-Fla., and non-governmental organizations.
The visiting commissioners said they were pleased with the negotiated "safe harbor" that U.S. companies can use to comply with the EU data privacy directive. But they also had concerns, and said they hope more U.S. companies would sign on. Currently, there are about 170 companies on board, according to a Commerce official.
The European officials expressed concern about a lack of transparency, alleging that companies are not including sufficient information in their privacy policies. Europeans want U.S. companies to more strictly adhere to the EU privacy principles as stated, while the U.S. government feels it sufficient for companies to generally follow the principles.
The Commerce official likened it to "a question of belts and suspenders." The United States feels that either one is sufficient, while Europe wants both. "It's important to bear in mind that there hasn't been a problem yet" with the way U.S. companies are adhering to the principles, the official said.
Europe Acts On Telecoms and the Internet
The European Union has taken several actions related to telecommunications and the Internet recently. For instance, the EU telecom ministers, known as the telecom council, on Monday extended by two years a program aimed at protecting certain groups from illegal and harmful content on the Internet. The action extends the expiring 1999 program to the end of 2004 in order to update the system developed in the initial stage.
Software is needed to protect children from harm on interactive systems such as online chatting and gambling and instant messaging, according to Per Haugaard, spokesman for EU Information Society Commissioner Erkki Liikanen. Approximately $11 million was provided for the extension.
The European Council also adopted a legal framework for the implementation of the .eu domain, which puts it on track for next year, according to Haugaard. The next step, to take place in the second half of the year, will be to select a registry to manage .eu, and get final approval from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which has given preliminary approval, Haugaard said.
Also, the council discussed the conclusion of the EU leaders at their mid-March summit in Barcelona that a new e-Europe action plan should be drawn up. The plan is to be prepared by the European Commission for the leaders summit in Seville, Spain, in June. It will cover five areas: broadband, digital content, security, e-government, and inclusiveness on the Internet.
The European Commission also has taken legal action against the governments of several member countries for failure to ensure that telecommunications markets are sufficiently competitive. The commission last week announced infringement proceedings against France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Portugal for not guaranteeing that reference offers from their incumbent operators are complete and sufficiently detailed. In December, proceedings were launched against Germany, Greece and Portugal for a lack of shared access to the local loop.
PTO Seeks Simpler International Patent Process
James Rogan, Commerce undersecretary for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), on Tuesday called for the simplification of existing international patent processes. Speaking at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, Rogan said, the "foundation of an international patent system exists in the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Patent Law Treaty, and in the [World Trade Organization] Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property."
In his speech, Rogan beseeched WIPO member organizations to "seek opportunities to build maximum efficiencies into the existing foundation." The purpose of the WIPO meeting was to look for ways to reshape the international patent system to ensure no patent applicant faces a disadvantage abroad.
Rogan noted that 45 percent of the 364,000 patent applications the PTO expects to receive this year come from abroad, and that the workload could be reduced if the office could rely on searches and examinations already done by other patent offices.
First-Ever India-U.S. Parliamentary Forum
A first-ever forum of elected officials from India focused on relations with the United States is scheduled for this week in New Delhi, according to the Financial Express of India. The Indo-U.S. Parliamentary Forum will focus on improving understanding between the parliamentarians of both countries and facilitating regular contact between them.
Among the issues the forum will address are trade, information technology and immigration. The launch of the meeting was expected to include Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., co-chairman of the Congressional India Caucus, after which the forum was modeled.
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