At International Privacy Conference, Consumer, Digital Rights and Data Protection Groups Call for Strong Laws to Protect Public.

TACD alongside leading privacy and consumer organizations meeting in Amsterdam this week called on data protection officials around the world to support a meaningful legal framework that would protect the fundamental rights of both citizens and consumers in the online era.

In a statement issued today at the International Data Protection and Privacy Conference, the organizations criticized a just-released “Bridges” report, that primarily recommended a continuation of industry self-regulation to address privacy, which the organizations said was a “failed policy” and “remarkably out of touch with the current legal reality.”

“Digital rights organization and consumer NGOs call on the Data Protection Commissioners to refocus their attention on the need to update and enforce privacy law”, the statement said.

The organizations praised the recent success of Max Schrems who won a landmark decision before the European Court of Justice, which struck down the Safe Harbor data transfer arrangement that allowed the personal information of Europeans to go to the United States without adequate legal protections.

The groups urged all nations to adopt, update and strengthen a comprehensive privacy legal framework.

The statement is available here.