The US and European Union government are still far apart over settling on a compromise over recently-introduced EU data protection legislation that makes it illegal for US companies to transfer personal data out of EU countries. The EU data protection directive, which came into effect on October 25 last year, made it illegal for corporations to transfer personal data held on systems in Europe to countries that the EU feels do not afford an adequate level of protection, for the data. And the US, in the eyes of the EU, does not afford adequate protection because of its lack of general privacy protection laws. John Mogg, director general of Directorate General XV of the European Commission David Aaron of the International Trade Administration within the US Department of Commerce have been negotiating on and off for months now. Agreements have been mooted, only for hopes to be dashed. It appears that both sides will have to give a little, but whether that means the US government introducing privacy legislation or not is unclear at this stage. According to Bloomberg yesterday, the latest set of talks have broken up with no progress having been made. Mogg said both sides still need to do a considerable amount of work to agree on common laws. Aaron recognized the difference in culture, which is exemplified by the different attitudes towards privacy legislation. For example, whereas the US has none, France has had data protection legislation for more than 20 years and the UK for 15. The US issued safe harbor guidelines to US industry last November, which would effectively protect US companies doing business in Europe, which predictably enough, didn’t much impress the Europeans who doubt the US government will enforce the rules. Still, the two sides are still hopeful they can reach a compromise before a scheduled EU-US summit in June and plan to meet again next month.
