Week 3 - More Privacy Law
OECD Principles and Standards
The OECD is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It is an intergovernmental economic organization with 36 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index and are regarded as "developed countries."
The standards and guidelines issued and agreed to by the OECD are not mandatory law. This is a voluntary organization that is international in nature and there is no "court" to enforce member compliance. Their goal, however, is to inspired global economic well-being. This includes inspiring global corporations and businesses to recognize and honor the privacy rights of consumer and employee stakeholders as the digital economy expands.
California passed its new Privacy Law in 2018. For a great overview of the law, please read the article, "California Privacy Law Poised to Alter US Privacy Landscape." Links to an external site.
Washington State is also on the move to pass its own privacy law. For an overview of that bill and its status, please read, "The State Senate Version of the Washington Privacy Act, a Summary." Links to an external site.
The Senate in Washington has passed its bill but the House version is still under review. Washington's law, like California's, is inspired by the GDPR. It includes specific language about facial recognition technology, something we will be exploring in Module 9 and in our Data Translation Assignment.
While you are reviewing the background materials on both the California and Washington laws, what strikes you as interesting? Do you note similarities? What differences are notable?
The OECD adopted privacy principles as guidelines Links to an external site. for member states in 1980. Take a look at them.
The OECD guidelines were updated in 2013. The most recent version of the OECD Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data is included here for your reference.
With respect to privacy and the digital economy, the OECD states:
A growing number of online entities are collecting vast amounts of personal data. Data "mining" and advances in data analytics now make it possible to infer sensitive information from data which may appear trivial at first, such as past individual purchase behaviour or electricity consumption. The misuse of these insights can implicate the core values and principles which privacy protection seeks to promote, such as individual autonomy, equality and free speech, and this may have a broader impact on society.
While protection by law is essential, privacy in an increasingly data-driven economy would benefit from a multifaceted strategy, reflecting a whole-of-society vision, and supported at the highest levels of government, as called for in the OECD Privacy Guidelines (Links to an external site.) and the 2016 Cancun Ministerial Declaration on the Digital Economy (Links to an external site.). Such strategies need to strike the right balance between the social and economic benefits of enhanced reuse and sharing of data and analytics, and individuals’ and organisations’ legitimate concerns about such openness, including protection of privacy and intellectual property rights. Coordinated privacy strategies at the national level would enhance privacy protection in an increasingly data-driven environment. See Digital security and privacy at OECD