By Stewart Dresner, Chief Executive, Privacy Laws & Business.

In 1987, the basis for data protection laws was, in Europe, the Council of Europe Convention, and elsewhere in the world the OECD Guidelines. The EU Data Protection Directive was nearly a decade away, and therefore the US Safe Harbor was not envisaged. There were also no national privacy laws in the Asia-Pacific region. Many in the private sector in the US thought that data protection laws should not apply to companies. Data Protection Commissioners’ Conferences were cosy affairs, sometimes around one table. Fax machines were new, e-mail, the internet and websites hardly existed. Information on international data protection laws was scarce. When discussing my plan for this newsletter, large companies, law firms and Data Protection Commissioners were supportive. They remain so. Click here to open the full article

Privacy laws 1987-2007 and beyond

James Michael, Editor Privacy Laws & Business International Newsletter, and Stewart Dresner put some questions about data protection, past and future, to several of the international authorities on the subject who have been involved in it for at least 20 years, all of whom have spoken at PL&B conferences.

Here are the responses of Francis Aldhouse, former United Kingdom Deputy Information Commissioner and currently consultant solicitor at Bird & Bird; Peter Blume, Professor of Information Technology Law, University of Copenhagen; Dr David Flaherty, consultant and former Information and Privacy Commissioner, British Columbia, Canada; Masao Horibe, Professor of Law, Chuo Law School; and Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor. Click here to open the full article

Contact information on the Privacy laws 1987-2007 and beyond  contributors which they have agreed to be published on this website:

Francis Aldhouse: E-mail francisaldhouse@freesurf.fr

Professor Dr. Peter Blume: E-mail Peter.Blume@jur.ku.dk

Dr. David Flaherty: E-mail david@flaherty.com

Peter Hustinx: E-mail: edps@edps.europa.eu and www.edps.europa.eu