개인정보보호법제에 대한 최근 미국의 동향

The Traditional position of how to protect a personal information in the United States is to rely on industry self regulation. However, technologies of surveillance, data stalking and commercial profiling create wide spread concern about privacy in personal information. Critics say that self regulation and technical mechanism are an inadequate substitute for legal rights. For assuring citizen privacy in this information society, some legal scholars and congressmen in the United States strongly suggest that Congress should enact new legislations to be on level with the internationally acclaimed OECD Guidelines. They also say that Congress should create so-called Data Protection Commission that promoted fair information practices in the United States. Although privacy began as an American concept at the end of the 19th century, the United States has lost its leadership role in defining privacy. Because the EU requires each of its member states to harmonize data protection rights for citizens at a high level with a set of legal standards. In the absence of stronger legal protection, the United States is still vulnerable to trade war with the EU or other world trade partners. The safe harbor negotiated with the EU is not enough to resolve above issue. Therefore, it is said that Congress needs to act to establish a basic set of legal protections for privacy in the United States. Such legal norms should provide for minimum statutory damages in the event of violations as well as being a counterpart as European model of data privacy for guidance.