None of Your Business: World Data Flows, Electronic Commerce, and the European Privacy Directive

This month, the European Union’s Directive on Data Protection takes effect. Little known in the United States, the Directive prohibits electronic transfer of personal information about European citizens to countries with privacy protection laws that are deemed inadequate. As a result, many U.S. companies with European operations could find their activities significantly disrupted. In None of Your Business, Swire and Litan discuss the potential impact of an “inadequacy” finding on the U.S. economy and ways in which a trade war over privacy with Europe might be averted.