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privacy in North America
This page
looks at legislation and developments in Canada and the US.
Canada
The new Canadian Personal Information Protection & Electronic
Documents Act (often known as C-6 or the PIPED
Act) has just received a strong endorsement from the EU.
There's a
thoughtful discussion of the Canadian legislation in relation to
international developments in a report
by Colin Bennett.
The new Act builds on the 1982 Federal Privacy Act covering
all federal government departments and most federal agencies or
statutory corporations. It's broader than the Australian Bill and
is being implemented in two stages.
It will initially apply to those
private sector activities that are regulated by the federal government
and to personal information that is trade "inter-provincially and
internationally."
In three years time, as stage two, the personal
information provisions will extend to all information collected, used,
or disclosed in the course of commercial activities. Organizations or
activities within Canada’s provinces will be exempt from the Act if
the province has adopted provincial privacy legislation of a
substantially similar nature.
US
2000 saw a strong move by the US federal government and
major state governments (eg California and New York)
towards stronger online privacy regulation.
A useful overview of recent US developments is
provided in the online briefing
by the bipartisan Congressional Internet Caucus.
In September 2000 the US House of
Representatives moved to create a 17-member bipartisan 'privacy
commission' to explore the growing online personal privacy debate and
recommend a comprehensive legislative approach. The commission,
first proposed in March, was opposed by the Clinton administration
as likely to delay privacy legislation. With representatives from
business, academia and consumer groups it would present recommendations
to Congress in 18 months time.
The proposal is similar to the
Commission on Online Child Protection (COPA
Commission), established in 1998 in conjunction with the Child Online
Protection Act (COPA) - recently struck down by a Supreme Court
decision - to "identify technological and other methods that will
help reduce access by minors to material that is harmful to minors on
the Internet".
The Commission presented its final report
on 20 October and is now winding up. The report embraced rating
systems, filters, age verification systems and a special 'X' domain.
COPA is distinct from the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
(COPPA), described below.
The Advisory
Committee on Online Access & Security (ACOAS)
of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
recently released its 220 page Privacy Online: Fair Information
Practices in the Electronic Marketplace report
on consumer access to information collected by
commercial websites and the security of that information. Coming after a
spate of privacy breaches by bodies such as CDNow, DoubleClick, Amazon,
and RealNetworks, it reflects the FTC's 1998 Privacy Online and 1999 Self-Regulation
reports to Congress.
Transcripts from the 1999 FTC workshop
on online profiling are now available. Peter Swire has a thoughtful paper
on Financial Privacy & the Theory of High-Tech Government
Surveillance, arguing that individuals= payments will become
increasingly traceable, with possible advantages for government
(taxation, revenue distribution, crime deterrence) along with
disadvantages.
The 1998 US Children's Online
Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), requires that US sites obtain
parental permission before collecting, disclosing or using personal data
from children younger than 13.
Recent studies by the Federal Trade
Commission suggest that under 50% of US sites geared to kids are
compliant and reports indicate that industry is in disarray, with some
sites ceasing to collect the data, some confusing the Act with the
anti-pornography COPA legislation and
others experiencing administrative problems as kid pretend to be their
parents.
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