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The OECD was the first intergovernmental organisation
to issue guidelines on international policy for the protection
of privacy in computerised data processing.
On 23 September 1980, the Guidelines on the Protection
of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data (Privacy
Guidelines) were adopted as a Recommendation of the OECD
Council in support of the three principles that bind OECD
member countries: pluralistic democracy, respect for human
rights and open market economies. They were followed by the 1985
Declaration on Transborder Data Flows, and more recently by
the
Ministerial Declaration on the Protection of Privacy on Global
Networks, adopted by OECD Ministers at the 1998 Ottawa
conference, "A Borderless World: Realising the Potential of
Global Electronic Commerce".
At that conference, OECD Ministers reaffirmed "their
commitment to the protection of privacy on global networks in
order to ensure the respect of important rights, build
confidence in global networks, and to prevent unnecessary
restrictions on transborder flows of personal data". In
particular, they declared that they would "work to build
bridges between the different approaches adopted by Member
countries to ensure privacy protection on global networks based
on the OECD Privacy Guidelines".
In addition to the OECD Privacy Guidelines, three
other instruments prepared by the Council of
Europe, the United Nations and the European Union were
adopted in 1981, 1990 and 1995, respectively.
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