At the EU Data Protection and Privacy Conference today in Brussels, FTC Commissioner Julie Brill delivered a powerful speech about the way the U.S. protects consumer privacy. Along the way she offered a strong defense of the U.S. Safe Harbor Framework for European privacy:
“In the commercial space, the Safe Harbor Framework facilitates the FTC’s ability to protect the privacy of EU consumers. Without the Safe Harbor, my job to protect EU consumers’ privacy, where appropriate, would be much harder. In an era where we face many threats to privacy, Safe Harbor has been an effective solution, not the problem.”
In the face of so many challenges to the Safe Harbor Framework coming from European public officials, this speech from a prominent U.S. consumer protection official is a crucial reminder of the importance of this cross-border framework for international privacy protection.
Her remarks are also notable for the clear distinction she makes between government surveillance and commercial privacy:
“The issue of the proper scope of government surveillance is a conversation that should happen – and will happen – on both sides of the Atlantic. But it is a conversation that should proceed outside out of the commercial privacy context.”
As I’ve noted in previous blogs, the conflation of the two is damaging to both the need to protect citizens from intrusive government surveillance and in finding the right sort of fair information practices that provides for commercial enterprise, innovation and the preservation of consumer privacy. Commissioner Brill is exactly right when she insists on keeping these issues separate.
Mark MacCarthy, Vice President, Public Policy at SIIA, directs SIIA’s public policy initiatives in the areas of intellectual property enforcement, information privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing and the promotion of educational technology. Follow Mark on Twitter at @Mark_MacCarthy