On June 15, Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Supervisor, held a press conference, where he emphasized the importance of the reform of the legal framework for data protection in the EU. One of the many reforms mentioned, was the reinforcing of  international instruments in data protection.

At the International Data Conference in Budapest on June 16, the European Commission stated that  its proposal for a revised EU legal framework for data protection will be finalized this summer and published in November., and that it would promote the global dimension of data protection.

On the other side of the pond, in the U.S., Senator Patrick Leahy,the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, introduced, only a month ago, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendment Act of 2011, that would bring the data protections against government access guaranteed by ECPA of 1986  up to date in a changed world of advanced technology and global economy.

Meanwhile, the subject of data mining, while practiced for a while by both private sector and  governments, has received a renewed interest, due to ever increasing technological advances such as geotracking, mobile devices and biometrics.

How do the EU Data Protection framework overhaul, the ECPA revision proposal and data mining practices affect the average US consumer?

Find out by listening to this panel, presented at the 21st Annual Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference – The Future is Now, held at the Georgetown Law Center on June 14-16, 2011.

The panel was moderated by J.Bradley Jansen, Director at Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, and the panelists were: Monique Altheim, Esq., CIPP, at EDiscoveryMap, Ross Schulman, Public Policy and Regulatory Counsel, Computer & Communications Industry Association, and Steve Meyer, Director at Chain of Evidence.