Bygrave, Lee A. --- "International Agreements to Protect Personal Data" [2008] ELECD 397; in Rule, B. James (ed), "Global Privacy Protection" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Global Privacy Protection

Editor(s): Rule, B. James

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848440630

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: International Agreements to Protect Personal Data

Author(s): Bygrave, Lee A.

Number of pages: 35

Extract:

1. International agreements to protect
personal data
Lee A. Bygrave

CLEAVAGE, CO-OPERATION AND THE INCREASING
WEIGHT OF THE WORLD
`This is not bananas we are talking about.' Thus spake Spiros Simitis when
describing the European view of privacy in an interview with the New York
Times in May 1999.1 Simitis, Europe's de facto privacy doyen,2 made his
remark at a time when the European Union (EU) was locked in a dispute with
the United States of America (USA) over what constitutes adequate protection
of personal data. The primary catalyst for the dispute was the adoption by the
EU of a Directive on data protection in 1995.3 The Directive places a qualified
restriction on flow of personal data from the EU to any non-EU member state
failing to offer `adequate' protection of personal data. For many non-
Europeans, this seemed to be a case of the EU legislating for the rest of the
world and, indeed, legislating to the detriment of legitimate business interests.
Concern about such detriment was especially strident in the USA. There,
federal government officials had estimated that the restriction threatened up to
USD120 billion in trade ­ an amount far greater than had supposedly been at
stake in previous trans-Atlantic trade conflicts.4
In May 1999, the dispute between the EU and USA had entered a particu-
larly tense stage. After months of negotiations, talks were stalling, each side
claiming that the other was trying to impose unacceptable terms.5 It ...