Singapore, 16 July 2010 – Recognising that trusted flows of information are essential to doing business in the global economy, APEC has today launched a mechanism for regional cooperation on data privacy law enforcement.The new APEC Cross-border Privacy Enforcement Arrangement (CPEA) facilitates information sharing and cooperation between authorities responsible for data and consumer protection in the APEC region.
The arrangement establishes a process under which participating authorities may contact each other for help with collecting evidence, sharing information on an organisation or matter being investigated, enforcing actions, and transferring complaints to another jurisdiction.
Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Jennifer Stoddart, said the CPEA is an important step forward in addressing new challenges for privacy in a globalised, online world. “This will help us deal with privacy concerns relating to organisations that operate in multiple jurisdictions and businesses that move personal information across borders for processing. These are increasingly common phenomena in the economy of the 21st century and we need 21st century tools to address them.”
The CPEA also encourages cooperation between privacy enforcement authorities in APEC and their international, non-APEC counterparts as the arrangement has been designed to work seamlessly with other regional and global schemes.
The CPEA was developed by a volunteer group of APEC member economies - Australia, Canada, Hong Kong China, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, Chinese Taipei and the United States - with input from civil society and business groups. Initial participants in the CPEA are the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Australia, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of New Zealand and the United States Federal Trade Commission. Additional privacy enforcement authorities from APEC member economies are also expected to join. www.apec.org/apec/news___media/fact_sheets/201006cpea.html
- Source APEC media.
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