US: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission joins APEC's privacy agreement

Category: Nachrichten
By: M. Schröder - 2B Advice GmbH - the privacy benchmark

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has joined the Cross-border Privacy Enforcement Arrangement (CPEA) within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

APEC is a forum for the promotion of economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. The agreement of the members of APEC in collective programs takes place on a voluntary basis and in non-binding conventions. APEC has recognized that a lack of confidence among consumers in the observance of privacy rules restrains trade in cross-border transactions. As such, APEC is compiling a framework for privacy. A component of this framework is the Cross-border Privacy Enforcement Arrangement (CPEA). This agreement has the following three goals: promoting the exchange of information between the APEC markets; making mechanisms available in order to achieve effective cross-border cooperation among the privacy supervisory authorities and the exchange of information and aiding privacy investigations and prosecution with authorities outside of APEC.

 

According to the FTC's press release, joining the agreement, among other things, improves the application of the U.S. SAFE WEB Act.

 

The view beyond one's own European nose shows that, even in other locations, the importance of privacy is perceived as a crucial factor for growth and trade, and gradually rules for privacy are being created and - of central importance - networks and structures are being created that are facilitating and ensuring the enforcement of privacy rules. It is only through this that the confidence of consumers in the observance of privacy rules, which is necessary for trade, can be effectively gained.

 

Moreover, companies should take good heed of this principle and get to know the applicable privacy rules, if necessary setting up their own appropriate rules within a corporate group, communicating them to consumers and sanctioning violations against the rules. Gains in confidence equate to gains for customers, which equates to corporate gains. In this formula, privacy is a variable with constantly growing importance.

 

Sources:

 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/07/apec.shtm

 

www.apec.org/apec/apec_groups/committee_on_trade/electronic_commerce/cpea.html

www.apec.org/apec/news___media/fact_sheets/201006cpea.html

 

 

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