The European Citizen’s Freedoms and Rights Committee has voiced its
concerns over the proposed data protection agreement between the EU
and US. The Safe Harbour plan has been negotiated by the Commission
and the US Department of Commerce over the past two years and has
already been unanimously approved by EU member states.
The Safe Harbour proposal is primarily intended to ensure that
personal data on EU citizens will not be exported to US bodies
unless the bodies conform to certain standards.
Although there are presently about 300 on-line privacy bills
pending in the US, it does not seem likely that any legislation
will be passed in the near future. Under the Safe Harbour
agreement, US companies involved in the transfer of personal data
from the EU would have to take measures to provide consumers with
detailed notices of the way data is used and give the option not to
have data disclosed.
However, concern has arisen over the lack of monitoring and
investigation into Safe Harbour sites. The US Department of
Commerce keeps a list of Safe Harbour sites and when complaints are
made the Federal Trade Commission reviews them. However, the EU
Committee’s report in June described these activities as “purely
discretionary and, in practice, exercised only occasionally”.
Despite these criticisms, Ursula Pach of consumer rights group
Bureau European des Unions de Consommateurs, which has also opposed
the project commentated that, “in theory, the commission could not
take into consideration what the Parliament said. But it’s more
likely that they will make an effort to improve on what has been
criticised – and that would mean renegotiating the agreement.”
