While governments around the world passed laws to protect privacy so that their trade with Europe would not be disrupted, U.S. representatives expressed confidence that no drastic severance of trade would occur. Their gamble paid off, because data exchange between the U.S. and Europe continues while negotiations over the privacy directive drag on. Even in the EU, several countries have missed the deadline for passing privacy laws. But it is important to realized that many, notably Germany, have strong laws in place. These laws have proven that a modern economy can include privacy protection, and have formed the basis for the EU directive .
Polls show that the public takes a dramatically different view.
In the absence of laws, sophisticated tracking continues to encroach on privacy, through such systems as the Doubleclick service that allows multiple Web sites to share purchasing information. But a few cracks have appeared in the government's anti-regulation position. In June, after a year of investigating commercial practices on the Web, the Federal Trade Commission suggested for the first time that Congress pass a law to protect privacy. Furthermore, the FTC's report contained an enormous amount of evidence that businesses were not taking privacy seriously. The final major issue for our privacy wrap-up is encryption.