Is this part of the global concern Indira Singh was talking about?

[rumpel]

I stumbled upon an article in "Der Spiegel" last night. I will not translate the whole thing but summarize the context of the concern.

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/politik/0,1518,365663,00.html

DATENHUNGER

Amazon, Terror-Abwehr und der Staatsschutz
Amazon (.com) -Defense and Homeland Security

Von Michael Voregger

It concerns data protection of amazon and other such internet company's data collection of their clients. According to the article, Germany has a law, that vendors are not permitted to dissemanate collected private data of German customers to any foreign country, unless the foreign country provides similar laws for the protection of data.

amazon.de assures such information is protected by the EU-US agreement called "Safe Harbor"
http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/

Policy vs Law. The US has required the voluntary disclosure of a vendor's privacy "policy", therefore it differs from the "law" common in the EU countries.

Siting an example of such "policy" the article reports:

Punkt 1, Absatz 1, der Datenschutzerklärung von eBay Deutschland:
"Ich willige ein, dass die eBay International AG, Helvetiastrasse 15 - 17, CH-3005 Bern, Schweiz, meine personenbezogenen Daten erhebt und an die eBay Inc., 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose 95125, USA, übermittelt."

I agree that eBay International AG ,(address; Switzerland) is permitted to transmit my personal data to eBay, USA.

As per the Patriot Act, the US government can seize or request data collected from these vendors. There are also no laws to prohibit the sale of personal data to other vendors.

There has been so far "only" one case of amazon data use by the US. In 2003 a German citizen of Pakistani decent was denied entry by Customs and Immigration whereas they had detailed information of her buying habits at amazon.

Last year the Parlament was supposed to obtain a report on the "Safe Harbor" agreement but this has so far not materialized.

The article concludes
The quality of data protection and transfer of data remains an issue between the EU and the USA. The weak protection of private data should make everyone think twice whom they entrust their data to.

The US is privy to data of all.