NEGATIVE-PRIVACY-SOLVENCY-GENERAL 120

WE CANNOT PROTECT PRIVACY ON A NATIONAL LEVEL — IT MUST BE INTERNATIONAL

THINKING IN NATIONAL TERMS OF INFORMATIONAL PRIVACY PROTECTION IS INADEQUATE IN A GLOBALIZING ECONOMY

Gregory Shaffer, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School, Winter, 2000; Journal of International Law, 25 Yale J. Int'l L. 1, "Globalization and Social Protection: The Impact of EU and International Rules in the Ratcheting Up of U.S. Privacy Standards," EE2001-hxm lxnx

We live in a world where it is less and less accurate to think solely in terms of national regulation and national institutions. In one sense, the EU Directive is an exogenous force in internal U.S. conflicts over the regulation of privacy protection, shifting the stakes of U.S. political and economic actors. On the other hand, it is misleading simply to segregate the foreign from the domestic, the external from the internal. In importing and exporting goods and services, countries can also import standards and procedures. In a globalizing economy characterized by high numbers of transactions, widely dispersed stakes, and competing national, regional, and transnational jurisdictional authorities, the allocation of decision-making among alternative institutions (be they markets, legislatures, or courts) at alternative levels of social organization (be they sub-states, states, regions, or international regimes) becomes even more complex. In a world of interdependent institutions, the difficult, but essential task of comparative institutional analysis becomes even more challenging.

INFORMATIONAL PRIVACY IS INHERENTLY GLOBAL AND MUST BE DEALT WITH AS SUCH

Deron H. Brown, J.D. Candidate, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Spring, 2000; Thomas Jefferson Law Review, "BOOK REVIEW: PRIVACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE," EE2001-hxm lxnx

Without minimizing the importance of the other issues and their relationship to privacy, it is important to note the conflict between privacy and multinational impact and regulation. It is regrettably normal for Americans to view the privacy issue exclusively in the context of the United States Constitution. However, the United State's treatment of the issue could necessarily affect the information society worldwide. Cate notes that "digital information is inherently global: it respects no boundaries." n8 Thus, Cate seems to specifically focus on this conflict when he devises his approach to privacy protection. n9

PROTECTING THE PRIVACY OF PERSONAL DATA IS COMPLICATED IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD, THERE IS NO WAY TO PROTECT ACROSS BORDERS

Gregory Shaffer, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School, Winter, 2000; Journal of International Law, 25 Yale J. Int'l L. 1 , "Globalization and Social Protection: The Impact of EU and International Rules in the Ratcheting Up of U.S. Privacy Standards," EE2001-hxm lxnx

Increased cross-border activity gives rise to jurisdictional conflicts. As information technologies multiply, computing power and usage expand, cross-border mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and investments increase, and companies generally expand their markets beyond national borders, cross-border flows of data proliferate. Information does not respect boundaries, whether national, natural, or personal. Multiple states assert jurisdictional authority over information flows because they affect citizens and other residents within them. Data flows implicate the laws where they are generated and the laws where they are received. In the age of Internet postings, this potentially triggers the application of every national, state, and local data processing law in the world.

THE U.S. NEEDS TO ENACT MULTINATIONAL PRIVACY STANDARDS

Deron H. Brown, J.D. Candidate, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Spring, 2000; Thomas Jefferson Law Review, "BOOK REVIEW: PRIVACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE," EE2001-hxm lxnx

In keeping with the aforementioned role of government as a multinational negotiator, Cate briefly re-states the admonition that the United States must work to develop multinational standards for information privacy. n65 Cate notes that lack of multinational consensus on basic privacy protections "burdens information users, compromises privacy protections for individuals, requires greater national bureaucracies ... and threatens the deployment of new and valued services." n66

NATIONAL LAWS CANNOT REALLY GOVERN THE INTERNET BECAUSE OF ITS INTERNATIONAL NATURE

K.K. Campbell, The Toronto Star, April 6, 2000, TITLE: OUT OF CONTROL? // acs-EE2001

Another hurdle for controlling the Net is that it's an international network operating in the world of national laws, says Harris Rosen, a Toronto lawyer and cybercrime expert.

The problem is demonstrated by Holocaust-denier Ernst Zundel's Web site. The Toronto-based publisher knows he's banned in Germany and hard-pressed under Canada's anti-hate-propaganda laws, so he hosts his site in California, where the free speech laws are stronger. Zundel is using borders to prevent the application of regional law.