The New American Privacy

Abstract

The European Union sparked an intercontinental furor last year with proposed legislation to supersede the 1995 Data Protection Directive (DPD). The EU Parliament approved the legislation in a 49-3 committee vote in October. The text, which is not yet published in its current draft at the time of this writing, may yet be amended before being accepted by the union’s 28 member states. The legislation is billed as a money saver because it would harmonize EU member states’ data protection laws, which have diverged under the DPD umbrella. The business community is not convinced, fearful that costly new demands will strain balance sheets and depress innovation.

Keywords: data, privacy, regulation, comparative law, business regulation, european union, first amendment, free speech, free press, freedom of expression

JEL Classification: K13, K23, K39