‘Safe Harbor’ Privacy Pact Opposed

Leading consumer groups are set to announce today a joint resolution condemning the “safe harbor” agreement U.S. officials are seeking to protect American companies from a strict new European privacy law. The resolution could be an embarrassing development for the officials, who are scheduled to resume talks with European negotiators today in Washington over what has become a nettlesome privacy dispute. U.S. officials were unavailable for comment.

Many top American companies fear their overseas business and operations might be disrupted by a new European law that bans the transmission of consumer data to any country without adequate privacy protections. U.S. officials have lamented the vagueness of that standard, and tried to defuse a budding trade battle by proposing a safe harbor for U.S. companies that abide by general privacy principles.

But that proposal “fails to provide adequate privacy protection for consumers” and lacks an effective means of enforcement, according to a resolution unanimously adopted by 60 consumer groups last week.

The groups, including the Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America and top European consumer groups, are part of what is called the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue.