Interestingly, the EU seems to recognise the "right to a private life." Food for thought.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080407-eu-issues-tough-data-protection-finding.html > > "The Article 29 Working Group, a collection of the EU's top minds > on data protection and privacy issues, has issued a major report > (PDF) of its findings, and it won't be good news to the search > engine community. The EU started with the premise of a "right to > a private life" and allowed only limited data collection exceptions > to that right. Search engines can only hang on to European user > data for six months, must generally treat IP addresses as "personal > information," and must comply with the rules even if they are based > outside the EU. > ... > > "Once again, the US and Europe appear to be diverging on issues of > data protection and privacy; it's difficult to imagine the Article > 29 findings appearing in an FTC report here. > > "For instance, consider a post made to the Google public policy only > a couple hours after Fleischer's. Deputy general counsel Nicole Wong > talked up the FTC's "self-regulatory approach" to handling the issues > raised by behavioral advertising on the Internet. "Google's comments > underscore our support for the Commission's proposed self-regulatory > approach," she wrote, "which we believe is the most appropriate method > of ensuring innovation, competition, and consumer protection in this > space." "
