Phil Brennan
June 18, 2001

Instead of being the wildly free and unfettered medium cyber enthusiasts have been predicting, the Internet faces a future in which it could find itself enmeshed in the laws and regulations of a gaggle of nations, each with a different agenda.

According to the July 2001 issue of the eCompany.com magazine, the controversy over privacy is the first battleground in the fight for European control over the internet.

At issue is the 1995 Directive on Data Protection issue by the European Union (EU). The directive was meant to grant to European citizens the right to prevent having personal data transferred or processed and bans European entities from sending personal data to organizations domiciled in nations with "inadequate" privacy protection laws - a definition that applies to the U.S.

This strikes at the heart of U.S. E-commerce operations. "In theory then, under the directive, no U.S. companies' websites (or indeed, any of their computers or data bases) would be able legally to receive personal information from customers or employees in Europe," eCompany.com magazine explains.

That would put serious obstacles in the way of their doing online business. Potential customers, for example, could not be required to provide their credit information to a company to which they want to place an order.

There is an out - the so-called "Safe harbor" provisions which allow a U.S. company to pledge allegiance to European Union privacy laws and submit to enforcement by the U.S.The Largest Trade Barrier' Federal Trade Commission of other government agencies who would, in effect, be acting as agents for the EU.

The situation has agitated members of the U.S. Congress. GOP Representative Bill Tauzin (R-La) charged that, "the E.U. privacy directive could mean the imposition of one of the larger trade barriers ever seen and a direct refusal of the efforts we have made in various free trade agreements."

Tauzin is not alone in viewing the EU directive with alarm. The requirements that U.S. companies must submit to having the EU inspect their data protection systems and being held liable for the failure of their business partners to handle customer information in a confidential manner have upset American business executives.

Yet a number of U.S. companies have already agreed to put themselves in the "Safe Harbor" mode, and others have adopted the privacy provisions of some of the individual foreign countries.

In addition to the privacy issue, both the EU and some of the European nations have shown a tendency towards censorship.

Even more disturbing is the current EU effort to conclude a new cyber-crimes treaty, which would put the organization in the law enforcement business. One of the results could be to put the cyber-cops at odds with the "fee speech and due process protections embedded in our Constitution," warns eCompany.com.

"Already, US civil liberties groups are agitated that the authorities in, say Bulgaria or Azerbaijan have the power to police the Internet."

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