None of Your Business: World Data Flows, Electronic Commerce, and the European Privacy Directive

by Peter P. Swire, Robert E. Litan

Overview

The historic European Union Directive on Data Protection will take effect in October 1998. A key provision will prohibit transfer of personal information from Europe to other countries if they lack “adequate” protection of privacy. If enforced as written, the Directive could create enormous obstacles to commerce between Europe and other countries, such as the United States, that do not have comprehensive privacy statutes.

In this book, Peter Swire and Robert Litan provide the first detailed analysis of the sector-by-sector effects of the Directive. They examine such topics as the text of the Directive, the tension between privacy laws and modern information technologies, issues affecting a wide range of businesses and other organizations, effects on the financial services sector, and effects on other prominent sectors with large transborder data flows. In light of the many and significant effects of the Directive as written, the book concludes with detailed policy recommendations on how to avoid a coming trade war with Europe.

The book will be of interest to the wide range of individuals and organizations affected by the important new European privacy laws. More generally, the privacy clash discussed in the book will prove a major precedent for how electronic commerce and world data flows will be governed in the Internet Age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815782391
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/01/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Peter P. Swire is professor of law at the Ohio State University College of Law. He is editor of the Cyberspace Law Abstracts and has written on cryptography, cyberbank­ing, and the legal regulation of the Internet.Robert E. Litan is director of the Economic Studies program and holder of the Cabot Family Chair at the Brookings Institution. His previous books include Going Digital! (Brookings/Cato, 1998) and Globaphobia: Confronting Fears about Open Trade (Brookings/Progressive Policy Institute/Twentieth Century Fund, 1998).

Table of Contents

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. The Legal Context of the Privacy Directive

3. Data Protection and Information Technologies

4. Effects of Data Protection Laws on Electronic Commerce

5. Privacy Issues Affecting Many Organizations

6. The Financial Services Sector

7. Other Sectors with Large Transborder Activities

8. Policy Recommendations for Privacy Issues

9. The Internet, Electronic Commerce, and World Data Flows

Appendix A: European Union Directive on Data Protection

Appendix B: Summary of Potential Effects of the EU Directive

Index

Editorial Reviews

“This book, by two of America's leading experts in the law of data privacy, confronts the looming threat of Europe's data privacy regime. By assessing a wide range of fac­tors, both legal and nonlegal, that contribute to the protection of privacy in the United States, the book gives a clear and balanced picture of the gaps in America's protec­tions for privacy that remain. The completeness of this careful account, tied with the specific policy proposals offered at the end, make this an extraordinary contribution to solving one of the most significant conflicts raised by the Internet and the free exchange of information its present architecture presumes.” —Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law School

From the Publisher

An analysis of the tension between privacy laws, which restrict data flows, and modern information technologies, which encourage them. The focus is the European Union Directive on Data Protection which took effect in October 1998. The authors reveal significant problems under the Directive for financial services, human resource records, corporate intranets, and many other essential aspects of modern economies. The work is based on a study of actual data flows between the US and Europe. Of interest to individuals and organizations affected by the new European privacy laws and by proposed new privacy laws in the US. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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