The John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law Volume 18 Issue 1 Journal of Computer & Information Law Article 1 - Fall 1999 Fall 1999 Global Trends in Privacy Protection: An International Survey of Privacy, Data Protection, and Surveillance Laws and Developments, 18 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 1 (1999) David Banisar Simon Davies Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.uic.edu/jitpl Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Computer Law Commons, International Humanitarian Law Commons, International Law Commons, International Trade Law Commons, Internet Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, Privacy Law Commons, Science and Technology Law Commons, and the Transnational Law Commons Recommended Citation David Banisar & Simon Davies, Global Trends in Privacy Protection: An International Survey of Privacy, Data Protection, and Surveillance Laws and Developments, 18 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 1 (1999) https://repository.law.uic.edu/jitpl/vol18/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UIC Law Open Access Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in The John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law by an authorized administrator of UIC Law Open Access Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ARTICLES GLOBAL TRENDS IN PRIVACY PROTECTION: AN INTERNATIONAL SURVEY OF PRIVACY, DATA PROTECTION, AND SURVEILLANCE LAWS AND DEVELOPMENTS by DAVID BANisAR AND SIMON DAVIES OF PRIVACY INTERNATIONALt TABLE OF CONTENTS I. OVERVIEW ........................................... 3 A. THREATS To PRIVACY ............................... 4 1. Technology transfer and policy convergence ..... 5 2. Defining Privacy ................................ 6 B. THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY ............................. 8 C. THE EVOLUTION OF DATA PROTECTION ............... 10 1. Reasons for Adopting Comprehensive Laws ..... 11 2. The European Telecommunications Directive and the European Data Protection Directive ......... 12 D. MODELS OF PRIVACY PROTECTION .................... 13 1. Comprehensive laws ............................ 13 t David Banisar, Esq. is an attorney and writer in the Washington, DC area. He is Deputy Director of Privacy International (PI) and a Senior Fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). Simon Davies is Director General of Privacy International and a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. Mr. Davies serves on the Professional Advisory Board of this publication. This article is based on Privacy and Human Rights 1999: An InternationalSurvey of Privacy Laws and Developments, which was written with support from the Open Society Institute and the EPIC Trust. Knowledgeable individuals from academia, government, human rights groups and other fields were asked to submit reports and information. Their reports were supplemented with information gathered from Constitutions, laws, international and national government documents, news reports, human rights reports and other sources. An electronic version of the full report and up- dates are available at the Privacy International web page at <http'J/www.privacyinterna- tional.org/survey/>. Privacy International is a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations. PI is based in London, UK and has an office in Washington, D.C. EPIC is a public interest group in Washington, D.C. that promotes privacy, free speech and freedom of information. More information on EPIC is available at <http'/www.epic.org>. 2 JOURNAL OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION LAW [Vol. XVIII 2. Sectoral Laws .................................. 14 3. Self Regulation ................................. 14 4. Technologies of Privacy ......................... 14 E. CONTINUING PROBLEMS ................................ 15 II. COUNTRY REPORTS ................................. 15 ARGENTINE REPUBLIC ................................. 15 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA ...................... 17 REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA .................................. 20 KINGDOM OF BELGIUM ................................ 22 FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL .................... 23 REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA ............................... 25 CANADA ............................................... 26 REPUBLIC OF CHILE ................................... 30 PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ......................... 31 CZECH REPUBLIC ...................................... 34 KINGDOM OF DENMARK ................................. 36 GREENLAND ........................................... 38 REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA .................................. 38 REPUBLIC OF FINLAND ................................. 39 ALAND ISLANDS ........................................ 41 FRENCH REPUBLIC ..................................... 41 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY ...................... 43 HELLENIC REPUBLIC (GREECE) ....................... 46 SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION OF HONG KONG .... 47 REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY ................................ 50 REPUBLIC OF ICELAND .................................. 52 REPUBLIC OF INDIA .................................... 53 IRELAND ................................................ 54 STATE OF ISRAEL ...................................... 56 ITALIAN REPUBLIC ..................................... 58 JAPAN .................................................. 60 REPUBLIC OF KOREA (SouTH KOREA) ................. 62 REPUBLIC OF LATVIA .................................. 64 REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA .............................. 65 GRAND DUCHY OF LUXEMBOURG ....................... 67 MALAYSIA ............................................. 68 UNITED MEXICAN STATES ............................. 69 KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS ....................... 71 NEW ZEALAND ......................................... 73 KINGDOM OF NORWAY .................................. 76 REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ....................... 78 REPUBLIC OF PERU ..................................... 79 REPUBLIC OF POLAND ................................. 81 REPUBLIC OF PORTUGAL ............................... 82 19991 GLOBAL TRENDS IN PRIVACY PROTECTION 3 RUSSIAN FEDERATION ................................. 84 REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO ............................ 85 REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE .............................. 86 SLOVAK REPUBLIC ..................................... 89 REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA ............................... 91 REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA ......................... 92 KINGDOM OF SPAIN ................................. 93 KINGDOM OF SWEDEN ................................. 95 SWISS CONFEDERATION (SWITZERLAND) ............... 97 REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIwAN) ......................... 99 KINGDOM OF THAILAND ............................... 101 REPUBLIC OF TURKEY ................................ 103 UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND .............................................. 105 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ......................... 108 I. OVERVIEW Privacy is a fundamental human right recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in many other international and regional treaties. Privacy underpins human dignity and other values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech. It has become one of the most impor- tant human rights issues of the modem age. Nearly every country in the world recognizes a right of privacy in their constitution. At a minimum, these provisions include rights of invi- olability of the home and secrecy of communications. Most recently writ- ten constitutions such as South Africa's and Hungary's include specific rights to access and control one's personal information. In many of the countries where privacy is not explicitly recognized in the constitution, such as the United States (U.S.), Ireland and India, the courts have found that right in other provisions. In many countries, international agreements that recognize privacy rights such as the International Cove- nant on Civil and Political Rights or the European Convention on Human Rights were adopted into law. In the early 1970s, countries began adopting broad laws intended to protect individual privacy. Throughout the world, there is a general movement towards adopting comprehensive privacy laws that set a framework for protection. Most of these laws are based on the models introduced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop- ment and the Council of Europe. In 1995, conscious both of the shortcomings of law, and the many differences in the level of protection in each of its States, the European Union (E.U.) passed a Europe-wide directive which will provide citizens 4 JOURNAL OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION LAW [Vol. XVIII with a wider range of protections over abuses of their personal informa- tion.' The directive on the "Protection of Individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data" set a benchmark for national law. Each E.U. State must pass complementary legislation to incorporate this into their domestic laws. The Directive also imposes an obligation on member States to en- sure that the personal information relating to European citizens is cov- ered by law when it is exported to, and processed in, countries outside Europe. This requirement has resulted in growing pressure outside Eu- rope for the adoption of privacy laws. Nearly fifty countries now have comprehensive data protection or information privacy laws or are in the process of adopting them. A. THREATS TO PRrVACY The increasing sophistication