An International Standard for Privacy Protection: Objections to the Objections

Colin Bennett, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria, B.C.

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2000)

The following are some what I believe to be some contemporary realities about privacy protection in a globalized economy. Privacy standards are being "traded up" rather than "dumbed down." The extra-territorial impact of the EU Data Protection Directive has, on balance, led to a diffusion of privacy enhancing instruments (regulatory, self-regulatory and technological) around the advanced industrial world. Private and public organizations that wish to participate in global trade will need to be able to receive and communicate personal data on employees and consumers. They will also need to be able to demonstrate, not just in words but in deeds, that they have implemented the basic set of privacy principles upon which all international and domestic privacy standards are based. In a globalized economy, organizations will increasingly wish to know that their competitors are pursuing the same privacy principles. In a climate of "trading-up" free-riders will be increasingly exposed and will be less tolerated by responsible market players. There is a manifest need for the negotiation of an international, technology-neutral, certifiable, management standard for the implementation of the information privacy principles that may be implemented by any public or private organization that collects, uses, processes and discloses personal information via the Internet, or through any other public or private network. The aim of this paper is to make the case for an international privacy standard by refuting some of the most commonly stated objections to this idea.