Information export in the electronic environment: an overview of the EU data privacy directive and the U.S. response

The European Union has recently implemented its Data Directive on Privacy, a legal measure stating that certain "personal" information (e.g., an individual's race, sexual orientation, or medical records) cannot leave the EU unless it is going to a nation with privacy laws similar to those of the EU Directive. As the United States is not a member of the EU and as it has no official national data privacy legislation paralleling that of the EU, it cannot legally receive any form of "personal" information from any of the EU's 15 member states unless it first receives the consent of the individual. The United States responses with the "Safe Harbor Principles" which shift the burden of meeting EU privacy standards away from the national governments and to individual companies. The Safe Harbor Principles, however, have not been well received by either the EU or the American companies they were designed to help. To date, response to the EU Data Privacy Directive remains mixed, but one thing is certain-it will forever alter the way in which we view and we use the online environment.