The US and EU to take different approaches to privacy

The development of online privacy protections is at the critical moment as policymakers in both the US and the European Union push for changes to their own privacy rules.

The US and EU have always had very different approaches to privacy enforcement, with the US focused more on enforcing privacy promises that companies make while the EU  enforcers privacy rights even when companies make no such promises.

At a panel discussion about privacy enforcement held at the US Institute for Peace in Washington, Director of Fundamental Rights and Citizenship at the European Commission, Paul Nemitz said “the EU sees privacy as a basic right and our citizens expect that these rights are enforced.”