Today, we are receiving data protection authorities and privacy advocates from around the world at the 29th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners.
Over 40 countries will be represented, and nearly 600 delegates. One of the speakers will be Peter Fleischer, the Global Privacy Counsel for Google.
In recent days, Mr. Fleischer and Google have made proposals for the development of a global privacy standard. His suggestion is to begin with the framework put in place by APEC members.
Mr. Fleischer has posted the text of his initial speech proposing these standards, originally delivered to a UNESCO sub-committee meeting in Strasbourg. (The Need for Global Privacy Standards)
He has also posted the text of an op/ed prepared for Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, in support of the initiative. (Eric Schmidt on Global Privacy Standards)
Ann Cavoukian, the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner, has posted some additional history on the matter as a comment to this last post.
Unfortunately, all these documents are only available in English.
This will be a subject of much discussion – both this week and in months to come.