We still think and do things differently in many areas. And we each still regard our ways as the right ways. A prime current example is the issue of privacy. The U.S. and the European Union have very different data privacy regimes. It's not a choice between privacy and electronic commerce.
Privacy is essential for electronic commerce to flourish.
People simply will not post their personal information on the Internet unless they receive some guarantee of confidentiality. If we want the benefits of electronic commerce, we must ensure privacy. So the solution we're seeking is not a balance or a tradeoff. It's more like resolving simultaneous equations a solution that both protects privacy and preserves information as the new currency of the 21st Century. A U.S.-EU division over the issue of privacy would be significant enough.