[ga] Re: [Ecommerce] privacy bill - Japan...

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

All Former DNSO GA members.

  From the Ecmom list.  Also see:
http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2003012500211.html

=========copied post and my response starts here=========


Taleshi and all,

  Thank you Takeshi, for pointing this interesting bill out in Japan's
Diet.  As  you may know, Privacy in internet affairs is becoming a
bigger and bigger issue in the US as well...

Takeshi Muramoto wrote:

> >From Yomiuri Shimbun, January 25, 2003
>
> http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm
>
> Privacy bill sets harsher penalties
>
> Government employees could be sentenced to up to two years in prison or
> fined up to 1 million yen for violating an envisaged law aimed at protecting
> the confidentiality of personal information held by the state, government
> sources said Thursday.
>
> The bill to be submitted by the government to the current Diet session in
> mid-February would impose even harsher penalties on officials who unlawfully
> provide lists of individuals and other personal information from government
> files to third parties.
>
> The bill also provides for sentences of up to one year imprisonment and
> fines of up to 500,000 yen for government workers who collect personal
> information for purposes unrelated to their duties. This represents an
> effort to prevent irregularities similar to the information-seeker list
> scandal that rocked the Defense Agency in May.
>
> The extraordinary Diet session convened last autumn scrapped a similar bill.
> The government is applying the finishing touches to the new bill, which it
> plans to present to the current Diet session.
>
> The bill would cover employees at administrative institutions and
> corporations commissioned by government organs to handle personal
> information.
>
> In March 2002, the government submitted to the Diet an initial bill on the
> confidentiality of personal information possessed by government offices. The
> bill did not include penalties for government employee who provided personal
> information to a third party or gathered personal data for purposes
> unrelated to their duties.
>
> At the time, the government defended the bill on the grounds that government
> workers are legally required to protect the confidentiality of information
> obtained in connection with their duties and therefore the confidentiality
> of such information was ensured under the National Civil Service Law and the
> Criminal Code.
>
> In May 2002, however, it was found that Defense Agency officials had
> produced files on a list of individuals and private organizations that had
> sought Defense Agency and Self-Defense Forces documents under the Freedom of
> Information Law. The officials involved were punished under the Self-Defense
> Forces Law.
>
> Takeshi Muramoto
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ecommerce mailing list
> Ecommerce@lists.essential.org
> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/ecommerce

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 129k members/stakeholders strong!)
================================================================
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
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