Privacy is the expectation a person has about his information being disclosed in public or to third party. Due e-commerce, most of the business happens over the phone or internet. Therefore consumers are worried about their privacy. Since lot of their information is getting stored on servers all around the world. Critics say privacy laws have not evolved as fast as the technology has. While others say that putting more restrictions can harm the information sharing. IT firms have outsourced to India, Philippines. Now an Indian call center will have information about the customers form United States like credit card, social security, which can be misused. Not only that this information is being used to market other products as well.
Europeans are more concerned over the privacy issue because is people do not have trust in corporate world. On the other hand Americans are more concerned about government invading their privacy. Due to this US government has less power over privacy issues compared to Europe. And private corporations sneak through with small fines. Where in India there is more trust amongst the people compared to western world that is one of the reason people are not concerned about the privacy.
Due to differences in laws companies in order to comply with laws of one country are breaking laws in other countries. Case, where United States wanted information from travel companies about the passengers. Giving the information will break the privacy laws of Europe and not giving it will break the laws of United States. Breaking any law costs huge business. Considering the potential of United States in world business companies will break EU laws to comply with United States laws. There is huge trade between United States and European Countries; to stop the confusion and make it easy for business still protecting the privacy of the citizens is a next big task for both the governments.
Already lot of issues has come up due to privacy laws. Countries around the world need to come together to find a solution for this, there is no point in stretching these kinds of issues. One country decisions about their policies affects the whole world in certain ways. United States is a better example, how regulatory like FTC has controlled the data privacy issues without affecting the business. Few positive things are happening regarding the privacy as a global issue such as EU is reviewing its data protection directive. Also International Organization of standardization is working towards security aspects such as identity management, biometrics and protection of personal information. This issue can only be cracked down by adopting the common laws for private sector as a whole which looks slippery and a huge task.
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As I read this, I am reminded that before any international legislation for copyright law existed, printers could simply bring their equipment across country lines and print with no fear of legal recourse.
ReplyDeleteThe main trouble now with intellectual property law revolves around enforcement policies and cultural differences. For example, while China has enacted a lot of legislature meant to slow the spread of illegally reproduced data, they have done little to enforce them. Much of this can be due to cultural differences, as China is far more collectivist than the United States.
Here's a video I found a while back that discusses the differences between individual and collectivist culture (Reminiscent of Dr. Farrow, eh?)
I specifically liked your example using how the United States uses the FTC for regulation. However, it is clear that an international commission would be the best result as that is basically a necessity in order to reach the order necessary for proper regulation, given the huge amount of international trade issues.
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