During the recent Hi Tech Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, a group of online privacy advocates got together to talk about extending the current clutch of US online privacy initiatives to Europe. The main two initiatives are Truste and the Better Business Bureau Online, which we detailed extensively last week. Both provide seals of approval to websites that maintain an adequate level of privacy for visitors to those sites. Privacy is this year’s big thing because the European Union recently enacted a data protection directive that requires all companies in Europe to prevent the transfer of personal data to any country that does not provide an adequate level of protection for that data, and that includes the US (10/26/98). A workshop was held at the show by Charles Jennings, a director of Truste and founder of electronic software distribution company Portland Software Inc (now Preview Systems Inc) to attempt to explain the special situation that exists in Europe, namely the multiple languages and jurisdictions. The common link here is Esther Dyson, who is the chairman of Truste and organized the Forum through her EDventure Holdings company. A small taskforce was set up to promote Truste in Europe and expects to report back by the year-end. It will meet with European governments, commercial web site owners and others with interests in privacy, as well as taking advice from the Truste people in the US. The aim is to establish Truste in Europe within the first half of next year.
