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Safe Harbour Principles [1998] PLBIRp 34; (1998) 46 Privacy Laws and Business International Report 6

US hopes safe harbor principles offer adequate shelter

On November 5th, the US Department of Commerce published its International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles (http://www http://www.ita.doc.gov/ecom/menu.htm). which provide a framework for US companies choosing voluntarily to adhere to them. The purpose of the scheme is that organisations within the safe harbour would have a

“presumption of adequacy” and “data transfers from the European Community to them would continue.” The intention behind the principles is that they are “designed to facilitate a bilateral understanding between the US and the European Community and thus to enhance commerce” between them. The document states that the principles are intended “solely” for US organisations “receiving personal data from the EU for the purpose of qualifying for the safe harbor.” Clearly, the US administration’s main motivation is that “all fifteen member states would be bound by the Commission’s recognition of the safe harbor principles as adequate.” One of the problems with the scheme is that organisations join it by “self-certifying” that they comply with the principles. Clearly, US based companies want a “predictable and cost-effective framework for the private sector.” Legal and privacy experts say that the guidelines are too vague – “two pages of principles to cover a modern economy’s data flow,” said Peter Swire, law professor at Ohio State University. But David Aaron, Commerce Under-Secretary, defended the principles saying that they were deliberately general to avoid hamstringing business with legal minutiae.