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Personal information protection
Incidents involving the leakage of personal information are now occurring
with greater frequency. As a result, corporations must protect and strictly
manage personal information as part of their valuable assets. Leakage of
personal information can expose individuals to various threats including
nuisance telemarketing calls, large amounts of direct mail, and misleading
payment notices, in addition to eroding confidence in the corporation.
Reference
EU (European Union) directive
An “EU directive” is a form of legislation
between EU member states. The 1995
EU Directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of
personal data and the free movement
of such data stipulates that the transfer
of personal data from an EU member
state to a third country may only be
made to a third country that takes adequate steps to protect personal information.
●Privacy Mark System
A large amount of personal information is stored on computers today,
which has increased the risk that personal information could be carelessly
leaked. Due to this risk, developed countries have implemented measures
such as enacting legislation for the protection of personal information. The
European Parliament and Council of the EU (European Union) issued the
EU Directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing
of personal data and the free movement of such data in 1995. This directive served as the impetus for Japan to launch the “Privacy Mark System” in April 1998, with the JIPDEC (Japan Information Processing Development Corporation) acting as the accreditation body.
The three objectives of the Privacy Mark System are summarized below.
• Enhance consumer consciousness toward personal information protection.
• Provide consumers with an index for judging the appropriateness of the
handling of personal information by business operators.
• Bestow incentives for business operators to take measures to protect
personal information.
Under the Privacy Mark System, JIPDEC grants permission to business
operators who have demonstrated that they have taken appropriate initiatives to protect personal information for using the privacy mark as a mark
of accreditation. Business operators who have been granted permission to
use the privacy mark may display this mark in advertising and on business
cards, and on envelopes and websites to demonstrate to others that they
observe the appropriate handling of personal information.
Privacy mark
Sample
* The privacy mark accreditation
number shown here is a sample
number. Accreditation numbers are
individually assigned to business
operators.
287