Ambassador David Aaron
Under Secretary for International Trade
International Trade Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce
Washington, DC

Re: Request for Comments on International Safe Harbor for Data Privacy

Dear Ambassador Aaron,

First and foremost, America Online, Inc, (AOL) would like to commend your work and the work of your staff in trying to forge a workable solution to the challenges presented to American companies by the European Union's data protection directive. Since November, we believe that you have made enormous progress in reaching mutual understandings with the Europeans about a variety of issues that will help AOL and other new media companies both comply with the law in Europe and balance the needs of consumers. We appreciate the difficulties in reaching any accommodation with European officials in the context of the two very different historical perspectives on the protection of personal privacy held by this country and by European nations.

As we stated in our earlier comments, we believe that establishing privacy policies that foster the growth of the Internet medium is critical. Such policies should be industry led, market-driven and respond to consumers' demand that their private information be protected. As we have stated publicly in many forums, the responsible use of personal information is, for AOL, a critical business issue as much as a policy issue. And, with the study released this week by Professor Mary Culnan, we believe that great progress has been made and that more and more companies understand the need to adopt and implement good privacy policies in the online environment. We believe that an approach to the European Directive that is based on principles of responsible industry self-governance is a good one.

We do continue to have specific concerns about the principles underlying the safe harbor and the frequently asked questions (FAQs) that support them and look forward to discussing those specific concerns in the consultations that you and your staff plan to have next week. We believe that getting all of the aspects of the safe harbor and its implementation is critical in light of our belief that it may end up serving as the basis for the global debate on privacy in the information age.

Specifically, we want to note that resolution of the issues surrounding the interpretation of the Directive's access requirement is critical. We want to reiterate that the concept of "reasonableness" must be central to the access principle and supporting FAQs. We want to make sure that the safe harbor is based on principles of pragmatism and not inflexible notions that ultimately undermine implementation of the access principle.

Once again, we thank you for your work on the safe harbor process and for the opportunity to participate. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have and look forward to participating in the ongoing consultations with you and your colleagues.

Very truly yours,

George Vradenburg