The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a revised version of its 1980 Recommendation Concerning Guidelines Governing the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data. The 1980 Guidelines were the first internationally agreed upon set of privacy principles. Among other things, they influenced the Council of Europe's Convention No. 108 for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, the EU's Data Protection Directive (1995/46/EC), the US Fair Information Practice Principles, and the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) Privacy Framework. The revised Guidelines largely reflect the provisions included in the original version with the five main principles remaining unchanged. However, they do contain additional suggestions on how member countries should implement the accountability principle and encourage closer co-operation between member countries with regard to cross-border privacy law enforcement, in particular by enhancing information sharing among privacy enforcement authorities. Interestingly, the revised Guidelines do not specifically address many of the issues arising from changes in information and communications technology that have informed the European Commission's proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation (see Practice note, EU data protection regime proposals: analysis and noter-up). Unlike many of the other instruments that followed the original Guidelines, they have also retained their non-binding, high-level nature. While this approach allows less developed member countries to take first steps in the area of privacy and data protection law, it remains to be seen whether it will ultimately assist the development of a global privacy standard.

Source: OECD Recommendation concerning Guidelines Governing the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data, 11 July 2013.