Europe Lags Behind U.S. on Web Privacy

Wall Street Journal article on Consumers International Survey             Back to NCPA Debate Home Page

U.S. Privacy Protection Model Works Better, According to Report The Tuesday, February 20 issue of the Wall Street Journal reports on new findings on privacy protection in the U.S. verses Europe (p. B11). The article by Ben Vickers gives the results of the study by Consumers International, a UK based consumer organization. The article begins: "Internet users' privacy is better protected in the U.S. than in Europe, despite the raft of privacy regulations that have been approved by the European Commission over the past five years..." "The U.S. model ov voluntary self-regulation of the use of private data collected online appears to work better..." The full article is available on the Wall Street Journal Online site, but that is a fee-based service. Click here for link if you are or wish to be a subscriber. The study showed that 80% of European web sites don't comply with current European Union privacy regulations. By contrast in the U.S. 60% of "most-popular sites offer users the option of opting out of having their data stored and reused." The study notes that fewer European sites collect personal information, but with those that do less than one-third follow various EU privacy regulations. Consumers International still likes the regulation-based European Union approach to protecting privacy, and the point of the study seems to be to shame EU governments into providing more funding for each country's data-privacy commissioner and national enforcement agency. The WSJ article quotes Anna Fielder, Consumers International director on the funding issue, "When you talk to the national regulators who are supposed to make sure the rules are applied they always complain of a lack of funding and a lack of staff for an enormous amount of work." The study also reviews privacy policies and realities in the EU versus U.S. in regard to online trading and unwanted e-mail (spam). The study is not yet posted on the Consumers International web site (as of February 21, 2001).