EU Privacy Directive — Coming To the US?

An anonymous reader writes "An article over at ComputerWorld implies that the EU Privacy Directive, or something like it, will soon be signed into law here in the USA. The author seems to think this is a good thing, but I'm not so sure. From the article: 'We've finally come to realize that self-regulation by industry hasn't worked. The states have stepped in, creating the same situation of conflicting regulation that led to the creation of the EU privacy directive. The only question now is if the law that comes out of Congress will be a small step strictly focused on breaches, such as S.239, or whether we take the bigger step of forming a permanent committee under the FTC to monitor privacy as outlined by S.1178. Either way, the U.S. is finally moving away from the fractured environment of the past and toward a comprehensive privacy strategy.' Is it time for a national privacy law or 'Privacy Czar', or are we better off letting things be?"

Comments

By the time this thing...

[Anonymous Coward]

...ever makes it into US law (if ever), it will be so watered down and ineffective that it might as well not even exist. The corporations who now run the USA will not stand for it.

It is already "watered down..."

[msauve]

if you read the bill, it's nothing like the EU privacy laws. The EU laws protect a person's privacy, requiring their permission to disclose personal information (among other things).

The US bill does nothing to prevent a corporation from deliberately disclosing whatever they want to whomever they want - it's focused exclusively on securing those transactions from third parties.

The law is summed up in this paragraph:

A covered entity shall develop, implement, maintain, and enforce a written program for the security of sensitive personal information the entity collects, maintains, sells, transfers, or disposes of, containing administrative, technical, and physical safeguards

I have a thing about my Social Security number - I only give it to those who require it to fulfill legal mandates. That includes my employer, who has decided (without my permission, and despite my express denial) to give it to a health care provider. This proposed law does nothing to prevent that.

I want them to be prevented from "selling or transferring" my confidential information, without my voluntary consent (no consent as a condition of employment, etc.).