EC Official Pushes for Approval of Safe Harbor Provisions
Frits Bolkestein, the European Commission’s internal markets commissioner, said yesterday that he intends to ask the commission to formally approve the safe harbor provisions of the data protection agreement with the United States, instead of waiting for the European Union to decide if the agreement should be renegotiated.
Bolkestein made the disclosure after meeting briefly with the civil liberties committee of the European Parliament. The European Parliament’s position has been that the safe harbor provisions in the March agreement inadequately ensured the privacy of Europeans’ personal data transferred to U.S. companies and should be renegotiated.
The safe harbor provisions of the agreement permit participating U.S. direct marketers, list companies and others to obtain, use and disseminate the personal data of Europeans to third parties for marketing purposes only after obtaining the individual’s written permission to do so.
Bolkestein also said that he would ask the EC to renegotiate the agreement if, after a reasonable period, there is any indication that U.S. companies are not adequately protecting the privacy of Europeans. He would also ask for renegotiation if remedies for unauthorized use and disclosure “prove to be too weak” by European standards.
