Experts agree on proposed global privacy standards: (AFP)
Experts from 50 nations meeting in Madrid have reached a draft agreement on international standards for the protection of privacy and personal data. Under the proposed standards, data may only be processed after obtaining the ‘free, unambiguous and informed consent’ of the data subjects and it should be deleted when it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was gathered. Data collectors must identify themselves, state in clear language the purpose of the data processing and the recipients of the gathered data. International transfers of personal data may only be carried out to a country which ‘affords, as a minimum, the level of protection provided for in the document,’ according to the proposed standards, agreed by representatives from privacy protection agencies.

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