March - April 1999

• EU - Draft US data protection "safe harbor" principles under consideration Council of Europe : Guidelines for the protection of privacy on the Internet adopted
• USA -Consumer complaint filed against Intel for processor serial number threatening individual privacy

January - February 1999

• Italy - Regulation adopted on organisation of the Data Protection Authority

November - December 1998

• USA - Public interest organisations urge authorities to protect user privacy in electronic communications

September - October 1998

• Italy - Privacy authority rules on the application of the Directive on privacy in telecommunications

July - August 1998

• USA - GeoCities settles with FTC first privacy violation case
• USA - Higher protection of medical records required by Health and Human Services Department

May - June 1998

• Italy - Privacy Authority replies to the criticisms of the national prosecutor for organised crime to the new legislation on privacy on telecommunications

March - April 1998

• Italy - Data protection in telecom services introduced and data protection provisions relating to the press modified
• Canada - Government Discussion Paper on scheduled new privacy legislation

December 1997

• New Zealand -Information Privacy Principle vs payment for work principle

November 1997

• Hong Kong - Unauthorised video-taping is punishable under Personal Data Protection Ordinance

October 1997

• Germany - Teleservices Data Protection Act (TDPA)

September 1997

• Greece - Data Protection Act
• Italy - Privacy law amended

Privacy-enhancing technologies

• Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3) Project Activity World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
  • Presentation of prototype to FTC by Tim Berners-Lee
• Privacy-enhancing technologies for the Internet Ian Goldberg, David Wagner, Eric BrewerUniversity of California, Berkeley

  Data security

• PC Magazine: Protection At the Desktop

  Cookies

• Persistent Cookie FAQ

Law and policy

European Union

• EU data protection directive in the telecommunications sector ( DE , EN , FR )

EU Data protection Directive 

• DE ES FR IT NL

  Download as Word for Windows (zipped 23349 bytes) Rich Text Format (RTF) (zipped 22296 bytes)

  Compare English and French versions of the Directive 
  Download as Word for Windows (zipped 52022 bytes ) Rich Text Format (RTF) (zipped 51700 bytes )

Council of Europe

• Council of Europe Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data
  FR

International agreements

• General Agreement on Trade in Servives - GATS - see art XIV(c)(ii)

EU member States

• Spain - Spanish Data Protection Agency 
  
  
• Austria - Datenschutzgesetz
• France - CNIL, Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés Loi no. 78-17 du 6 Janvier 1978 relative à l'informatique, aux fichiers et aux libertés
• Germany - Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG) Gesetz zur Fortentwicklung der Datenverarbeitung und des Datenschutzes vom 20. Dezember 1990
• Netherlands - De Wet persoonsregistraties (The Dutch Data Registration Act 1988)
• Italy - Legge 31 dicembre 1996, n. 675 Tutela delle persone e di altri soggetti rispetto al trattamento dei dati personali EN
• United Kingdom - Data Protection Act 1984 Warning. The Act has been amended since its enactment, but these amendments are not shown.

United States

• BNA'S ELECTRONIC INFORMATION POLICY & LAW REPORT 
  
  
• Public Workshop on Consumer Information Privacy Federal Trade Commission
• Privacy and Self-Regulation in the Information Age US Department of Commerce
• Options for Promoting Privacy on the National Information Infrastructure Draft for Public Comment
  Information Policy Committee - National Information Infrastructure Task Force - Executive Summary - April 1997
• Surfer beware: personal privacy and the Internet Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington, DC - June 1997
• Protecting Your Privacy When You Go Online

Seminars

• Privacy: the New Frontier - International Conference on Privacy, Montréal, 23-26 September 1997
  Proposal for an International Privacy Secretariat

Links to other sites

• Welcome to the Dutch Privacy Page
• Datenschutz-Informationen (German Privacy Information)
• The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT) Special Feature on the European Data Protection Directive

  Lists and Search engines

• Privacy International Country page Belgium France Germany Italy UK
• Yahoo!: Privacy
• Hieros Gamos II Privacy Law