The Council of Europe, which has a long history of promoting good data protection practice, released a draft report on data protection withi the context of surveillance in December 2000. The deadline for comments was the end of January 2001, so this draft report may not stay on the Council of Europe server much beyond this date. Many of the US-based sites do give a good coverage of data protection issues world wide, especially Privacy Exchange and the Electronic Privacy Information Center . Both have good lists of links, and the EPIC site also lists newsgroups. Other good sites are the Consumer Project on Technology and the Privacy Rights Clearing House , both of which have good lists of links,but overall represent the consumer concerns about privacy.
EPIC also offer an e-mail newsletter.
Many of the leading US companies also support the Online Privacy Alliance , though there is little other than OPA material on the site. Another organisation that is starting to pay particular attention to data protection issues is the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue . One sector that is very concerned about the impact of data protection legislation is the direct mail industry, and the Direct Marketing magazine site gives good news coverage on a rolling 30-day basis. The group is based on London and has an office in Washington. A subscription to the newsletter also includes a hotline enquiry service.