Internet Privacy Law: a Comparison Between the United States and the European Union

The right to privacy is viewed as a fundamental right all over the world. However, there are many interpretations of what privacy is, and this interpretations are in some way related to historical events that shaped the meaning of privacy differently for every country. Countries of the European Union consider the right to privacy a sacred right, therefore, they have established laws to protect the respect for private and family life and the right to personal data protection. Although United States has some sector laws to protect privacy, the constitution does not mention privacy as fundamental right, nonetheless, the notion of privacy can be extracted from the first 10 amendments of the constitution. Consequently, regulation of the right to privacy changes drastically between Europe and the United States. Countries in Europe have regulatory agencies whose only purpose is protect the privacy of its citizens. In contrast, the

Time Newspaper has learnt that it's not surprising that Internet companies have electronic dossiers that contain personal information for individuals who subscribe to the websites. Generally, these companies have obtained the information from people based on individual's visit to the website, sent and received emails, tagged photos, and searches people carry out. However, the extent of personal information known by these Internet companies has remained largely unknown as well who they provide and/or sell this information to. However, Internet companies continue to gather lots of personal information from different people who focus on carrying out online activities on a daily basis. Currently, it's estimated that these firms gather personal information from nearly 500 million users but are hesitant to provide this information to the other firms or individuals. As their unwillingness to share has attracted significant congressional inquiry, things could finally change in California following the introduction of a bill that may force companies to disclose the kind of personal information they have gathered and how this information is being used.

Over the past few years, the development of the Internet and the intrusive surveillance capabilities of these technologies have caused privacy to become a major political and social issue for millions of Americans who go online.  Companies employ a variety of tools to gather marketable information on American citizens.  Most of the use of this information is for personalized advertisement and to create databases of target audiences.  While these activities may appear to be nothing more than annoyances for a majority of Americans, there is the hidden danger of the loss of privacy.

The issue of internet privacy has been a topic of discussion throughout several years. The Obama Administration worked diligently to establish federal regulations to protect the U.S. citizen’s internet activity. Unfortunately, the federal regulations that provided these protections were not set to go into effect until the latter part of 2017. With the new presidential administration in office these regulations have found their way onto President Trump’s desk within the first 100 days in office. A nd he has decided to sign an executive order to roll back these regulations for internet privacy. This will allow the internet provider the ability to not only bill for the use of their service but to also capitalize off of the user’s private information

Over the past decade the world has gotten much smaller due to the electronic communication the Internet has fostered. While this promotes business and international relations, problems arise regarding the protection of individuals’ personal information. Many countries around the world have developed privacy policies and laws protect an individual's information in the realm of electronic communication. Universal enforcement gets complicated because the Internet is not restricted to one country; it’s worldwide. As a result, concerns arise regarding the compatibility of various countries' privacy policies. This paper will discuss the current legislation in place for various major

The defining moment in dismantling digital data privacy, in the United States specifically, was a necessitated response to prevent future terrorist attacks on the scale of 9/11. However, the responses of European governments and the United States differed dramatically. The EU member states focused on hardening their perceived targets. Conversely, the US focus

The concern about privacy on the Internet is increasingly becoming an issue of international dispute. ?Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, searched and recorded.? (www.britannica.com) 81% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of e-commerce alone, and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured on the copy and trade of intimate personal information and therefore, a threat to privacy on the Internet.

In 2013, 71% of the US population over the age of three used the internet. Our everyday lives are typically filled with technology and internet, but how much of it is being monitored by the government, and how does it affect our privacy? Our entire lives are completely wrapped around internet, all the way from posting what you ate on Instagram to paying your bills through technological systems, such as PayPal. As the internet becomes an almost necessary part of life, privacy becomes even more likely to be violated and be misused by crooks or other immoral business corporations. This topic obviously deals with legal issues and normalities, bringing up how the issue of security should be addressed by the government with the least amount of privacy invasion. There are many who say that there needs to be a lot more government monitoring and tighter security, while others say that the government and other internet securities need to back away completely and keep out.

It is understood that there are a number of definitions of privacy. Intellectuals have published works with varying content throughout the years. In 1890, Warren and Brandeis’ article gathered that privacy is the “right to be let alone” (Samuel Warren). Additionally, William Parent suggested that “privacy is the condition of not having undocumented personal knowledge about one possessed by others” (Moore, Privacy Rights: Moral and Legal Foundations). On the other hand, Julie Inness illustrated that privacy is “the state of possessing control over a realm of intimate decisions, which include decisions about intimate access, intimate information and intimate actions” (Moore, Privacy Rights: Moral and Legal Foundations). Although the definitions vary, the observations and publications regarding privacy indicate that individuals have the right to privacy, along with its protection. More importantly, how do we decide what these privacy rights entail and what principles should be incorporated under its protection? The understanding of one’s privacy and what should be protected is rooted in a society’s moral and social norms. What a culture does out of habit or custom and what their environment was like at the time, eventually shape how they view privacy as well as the laws they create. First, norms and habits undergo certain changes through the political, social, technological and economic evolution in a society. Thus, privacy laws are affected or may undergo some

Considering that privacy data is not only being used to help improve the service to the, but also being recognise as a key commercial asset because the owner of these processed privacy data could sell the data as a property and license these individual privacy information to any third parties organisations. Cyberspace is still not being recognised as privacy safe environment as the result with the development on privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) and meanwhile Clinton Administration has invested a enormous amount of effort on persuading business firms to initiate adopting privacy policies. There are some reason and factor to lead to the failure of the agreement of privacy policies. Firstly, lack of government public power involvement on making the market balance. A level of government power to restricted the economic environment is needed in the situation that people is being exploit in the business environment. However, government have clarify that they have ability to create property rights to protect privacy information. If government grants individuals property rights as a property, then equilibrium between business firm and web user would be lost. Thus, many privacy data collected firm internalizes the profit from the information but externalize the loss to public because they do not see any profit

Now, the Internet is not only a way people access information, but also the net that connects them. People use it to communicate with friends and family, keep current events and shop online. The using of Internet sometimes involves personal data, triggers fraud and abuse. These are the reason people have laws to protect themselves. People now much more cherish their privacy, so the government takes the responsibility of establishing the Internet privacy law and develop them. However, the legislative constitution in United States still faced criticism that need to father revise and develop.

An exception to this lack of government intervention on the Web has been government efforts to access Internet users’ private data (including surfing habits) under the terms of the Patriot Act. Google, along with Yahoo! and the other major search engines and web portals, are subject to considerable government pressures to release information about users. It should be noted that there are also now increasing signs that as technologies converge (e.g., the blending of telecommunications and Web communications) and as competitors cross into each others’ market territories (e.g., cable and phone companies becoming involved in Internet services through broadband products), more regulation of the Internet in the United States may be seen (Yang & Crocket, 2005, p. 38).

Sweden enacted laws concerning personal privacy several years before the European Union did and is even considered the forbearer of such landmark legislation in the entire world.[3] Such legislation that will be discusses within this paper include the Data Act of

There remains a perceived tension between Europe’s commitments to the individual’s right to privacy and the growth of the digital economy, which is crucial for Europe’s future progress. The EU’s initial response to these concerns was issued in its Directive 95/46/EC, otherwise known as the 1995 Data Protection Directive. The legislation was framed dually as a move to protect individual privacy against government and corporate intrusion, whilst at the same time aiming to improve data flows across Europe.

With a number of recent high profile court rulings and a major new Regulation in the works, data privacy has become a cause célèbre within the European Union (EU). The size and connectivity of the European market means that shifts in its regulatory framework ripple with major consequences for global business. The EU’s latest attempts to legislate in this area are a consequence of shortcomings in the design and implementation of the existing system of data collection, retention and safeguarding. While the existing system was designed to protect the private sphere from state intrusion, it ultimately created a system that punishes business.