On Jan. 25, 2012, the European Commission released the final version of its proposed revisions to the European Union’s data protection framework. The package of changes represents a comprehensive reform of the EU’s 1995 data protection rules.
The US is never likely to have the same strong privacy rights as those favored in the EU, but the fact that the EU is moving to expand privacy rights is a pretty good indication of the trend line. The world has changed with respect to privacy and security and many industries, especially healthcare, have been slow to catch the wave. In the US, two industries guaranteed to remain heavily regulated from a privacy and security perspective is healthcare and financial services.
The US is never likely to have the
same strong privacy rights as those
favored in the EU, but the fact that
the EU is moving to expand privacy
rights is a pretty good indication of
the trend line.
The financial services industry, taken as a whole, started taking privacy and security seriously years ago. Yes there were some laggards, and not all players always implemented the latest in best practices, but as a whole the industry took significant steps to get its house in order. The same cannot be said for healthcare. Sure, the big players are on board, but there are large segments of the industry that still refuse to recognize the changing of the guard.
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