EU Privacy Directive — Coming To the US?

An anonymous reader writes "An article over at ComputerWorld implies that the EU Privacy Directive, or something like it, will soon be signed into law here in the USA. The author seems to think this is a good thing, but I'm not so sure. From the article: 'We've finally come to realize that self-regulation by industry hasn't worked. The states have stepped in, creating the same situation of conflicting regulation that led to the creation of the EU privacy directive. The only question now is if the law that comes out of Congress will be a small step strictly focused on breaches, such as S.239, or whether we take the bigger step of forming a permanent committee under the FTC to monitor privacy as outlined by S.1178. Either way, the U.S. is finally moving away from the fractured environment of the past and toward a comprehensive privacy strategy.' Is it time for a national privacy law or 'Privacy Czar', or are we better off letting things be?"

There's a big question here.

[sehlat]

Given the history of regulatory agencies (see the history of the Interstate Commerce Commission for starters), just how long will it be before the new regulators end up captive to the industries they regulate?

There's a line in the movie "Absence of Malice" which sums up the problem of government regulators very neatly, even if it wasn't intended that way: "Have you given any thought to what you'll do after government service?"

Re:Is it just me

[RedElf]

Hold up a second, they're just trying to be like Ceasar [wikipedia.org] (except with bad spelling) too bad they didn't read the history books to see what happened to him.

Depends

[TubeSteak]

Printer Friendly:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com mand=printArticleBasic&articleId=9024784 [computerworld.com]

Anyways, it doesn't matter what the US signs into law if there is no meaningful oversight, penalties and enforcement.

I also can't imagine that the business lobby isn't going to scream and shout about the expense involved with implementing true EU style reforms.

One alternative to all these expensive-to-implement laws is to make it an opt-in industry. By the time they're done culling out all the people who don't want to be in the database (a one-time event), EU style privacy laws won't cost all that much to implement.

Re:Depends

[zCyl]

Anyways, it doesn't matter what the US signs into law if there is no meaningful oversight, penalties and enforcement.

It can, actually. If the American people believe they have a legal right to privacy, and expect it, then eventually oversight, penalties, and enforcement will come around, even if they don't start out in place.

Sometimes we have to aim for gradual cultural shifts if we can't immediately obtain sweeping and effective legislation.

The fallacy is that compliance = privacy

[Allnighterking]

All too often laws are enacted with the best of intentions only to show that compliance with the law is a hollow shell of the desired objective. Case in point is something like the CanSpam directive. By giving you a link to a page that had all the correct bells and whistles to appear to allow you to de-list yourself, when it actually de-listed you from one list and listed you on 40 others, is the probable end result.

How many times have you had a company ask for ridiculously invasive information for your protection . Similar results will be incurred here. Currently asking information is at best spotty in legality and because of this you have a certain level of push back available to you when they request it. (No I will not give my sons grade school his SSN) however once a law like this goes into play it creates an aura of safety that once an organization appears to comply with it, the loss of your personal data no longer is a high level of liability for them. As a result your privacy is reduced to a level of cookie cutter actions that never get questioned because, 'everyone knows it meets legal requirements'.

Re:Gaaah!! Go, go fist of death!

[jimicus]

In the UK, I do not want companies invading my privacy and it is made difficult for them to do so.

I must have missed something. Yeah, it's difficult for the man at the local newsagents to demand your name, DOB, NI number and inside leg measurement then sell it to the highest bidder when you go in to buy your daily paper, but it's a different story for banks, building societies and property rental agencies - most of whom I'd be dubious about trusting with too much information.

Generally in the UK they don't sell it to the highest bidder anyway - they just print it out and throw it in the street [bbc.co.uk].