The Centre for Information Policy Leadership’s Executive Director, Marty Abrams, brings you these thoughts on a recent data protection summit in Barcelona.

Harmonized international data protection rules have been privacy’s Holy Grail since the EU Directive was enacted in 1995. Harmonized, globally recognized rules would simplify life for privacy protection authorities and companies. Numerous efforts have been undertaken to create a harmonized code. The most recent, an international standards project led by the Spanish Data Protection Commissioner, began on January 12 as international privacy experts met in Barcelona. The Spanish Data Protection Commissioner leads the project, and the finished product — a harmonized privacy code that will be the basis for a data protection treaty— will be a center-piece of the 31st International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners on November 2009 in Madrid. 

The Barcelona meeting focused on a draft standards document developed by the Spanish Data Protection Authority, Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de Datos.  The document integrates many of the elements from the OECD Privacy Guidelines, Council of Europe Convention, EU Directive and APEC Privacy Framework.  In its 30 sections, the document recognizes almost every concept found in this existing guidance.

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