Despite protests from consumer rights advocates, the European Union has endorsed a data privacy pact with the United States that critics fear will erode legal protections many Europeans now enjoy.
Consumer advocates worry, though, that ''safe harbor'' is a sellout to corporate interests.
Opposition to the accord reveals ingrained cultural attitudes about personal privacy that separate many Europeans from Americans. Obtaining personal data is essential for most businesses - data on everything from insurance claims and credit card bills to information gleaned via Internet browsing on someone's favorite musicians and taste in clothing. Firms that sell via the World Wide Web have the most at stake. Still, Europeans have been more cautious than Americans in regulating the way companies collect and process personal data. An October 1998 EU law prohibits the transfer of data to the United States and other non-EU countries that don't meet EU standards for protecting personal information.