title: The European Union's Adequacy Approach to Privacy and International Data Sharing in Health Research.
abstract: The European Union (EU) approach to data protection consists of assessing the adequacy of the data protection offered by the laws of a particular jurisdiction against a set of principles that includes purpose limitation, transparency, quality, proportionality, security, access, and rectification. The EU's Data Protection Directive sets conditions on the transfer of data to third countries by prohibiting Member States from transferring to such countries as have been deemed inadequate in terms of the data protection regimes. In theory, each jurisdiction is evaluated similarly and must be found fully compliant with the EU's data protection principles to be considered adequate. In practice, the inconsistency with which these evaluations are made presents a hurdle to international data-sharing and makes difficult the integration of different data-sharing approaches; in the 20 years since the Directive was first adopted, the laws of only five countries from outside of the EU, Economic Area, or the European Free Trade Agreement have been deemed adequate to engage in data transfers without the need for further administrative safeguards.
authors.affiliation: Jennifer Stoddart was the Privacy Commissioner of Canada from 2003 to 2013. She has a background in social history and law and is currently a Visiting Scholar at McGill University's Centre of Genomics and Policy. Benny Chan, M.A., is a researcher with the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University in Montreal, Québec. He received a Master's degree in Religion and Ethics from Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. He is currently a B.C.L./LL.B. candidate at McGill University. Yann Joly, D.C.L., is the Research Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy and an Associate Professor at McGill University in Montreal, Québec. He received a Doctorate in Law from McGill University and is currently a Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé, Junior Scholar.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stoddart
authors.affiliation: Jennifer Stoddart was the Privacy Commissioner of Canada from 2003 to 2013. She has a background in social history and law and is currently a Visiting Scholar at McGill University's Centre of Genomics and Policy. Benny Chan, M.A., is a researcher with the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University in Montreal, Québec. He received a Master's degree in Religion and Ethics from Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. He is currently a B.C.L./LL.B. candidate at McGill University. Yann Joly, D.C.L., is the Research Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy and an Associate Professor at McGill University in Montreal, Québec. He received a Doctorate in Law from McGill University and is currently a Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé, Junior Scholar.
authors.forename: Benny
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Jennifer Stoddart was the Privacy Commissioner of Canada from 2003 to 2013. She has a background in social history and law and is currently a Visiting Scholar at McGill University's Centre of Genomics and Policy. Benny Chan, M.A., is a researcher with the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University in Montreal, Québec. He received a Master's degree in Religion and Ethics from Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. He is currently a B.C.L./LL.B. candidate at McGill University. Yann Joly, D.C.L., is the Research Director of the Centre of Genomics and Policy and an Associate Professor at McGill University in Montreal, Québec. He received a Doctorate in Law from McGill University and is currently a Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé, Junior Scholar.
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Joly
mesh_terms: D005062:European Union; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D018907:Privacy