IT Regulatory Compliance in North America

CHAPTER 13: EU REGULATION

The two most important European Union instruments, for North American organizations working with or within the EU, are the EU Data Protection Directive 1995 and the EU Privacy Directive 2003.

The Safe Harbor framework

This allows US corporations that are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (‘FTC’) and have operations in the EU to receive European data. They can comply with the EU Data Protection Directive by adopting the seven Safe Harbor Principles (these compliance standards are certified through the Department of Commerce and enforced by the FTC) which are set out on the Commerce Department’s website⁷ and submitting themselves to Commerce Department certification. Only a relatively small percentage of corporations ...