The White House, on February 23, 2012, released its long-awaited Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights ("Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights") as part of a White House Report on consumer data privacy that according to the White House will provide a baseline of clear data privacy protection for consumers as well as greater certainty for companies. While the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights itself does not create any legal obligations for companies at this time, the White House intends the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights to be used as a framework by both federal lawmakers and stakeholders to create federal data privacy legislation and enforceable codes of conduct.

The main principles of the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights are, not surprisingly, similar to the core principles of European Union privacy law. Implementation of this Bill of Rights through legislation would help harmonize US privacy laws with Europe as well the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ("APEC") privacy framework recognized by APEC member economies. The elements of the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights are...

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