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Privacy and the E-Commerce Chapter of the TPP

  • Publication Date | May 9, 2014
  • Document Type | Media Statement
  • Programmes | Development & Planning
  • Issues | Trade & Investment
  • Tags | E-Commerce, ISDS, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
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In the current negotiations of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement involving Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States and Vietnam, the USA has made proposals in the Electronic Commerce chapter. The next round of TPP negotiations where this is likely to be discussed starts on 12 May, 2014 in Vietnam. Since the negotiations are secret, we only have news reports of what the USA has proposed. These include free flow of information across borders and no local server requirement.[1]

Countries may have a number of reasons why they want to keep sensitive data locally where it can be protected under their domestic privacy laws. This could be citizens’ taxation data,[2] healthcare records,[3] financial information, etc. 

A number of countries already have rules to ensure that this information is kept in the country when it is stored by governments. For example Canadian provinces British Columbia and Nova Scotia require personal information in the custody of a public body to be stored and accessed only in Canada unless one of a few limited exceptions applies.[4]

The Australian government is worried that these U.S. proposals for free flow of information across borders and a ban on local server requirements could hamper its ability to uphold its national privacy laws and regulations for off-shored personal data.[5]

The USA is insisting on these proposals, despite the revelations by Edward Snowden of the extent of spying by the U.S. government.

NSA spying

Snowden’s leaked documents have shown that the U.S. government’s National Security Agency (NSA) has among other activities:

· Sent an agent to a technology company’s headquarters where they installed U.S. government software on to the company server and downloaded data from there for several weeks.[6] This would be facilitated if the servers are in the United States because other TPP countries cannot require them to be in their own countries – as the U.S. is seeking in the TPP.

· The PRISM program allows the intelligence services direct access to the servers of companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Apple etc. to collect the content of communications including emails, files, stored data etc. of non-Americans.[7]

· Tapped into the links between the data centres of technology companies such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo.[8] Another practice that is presumably facilitated by free flow of information and no local server requirements.

· Many other methods of spying.[9]

Use of personal data by private companies (big data)

There are also significant privacy concerns about the ways in which private companies use the personal data of TPP citizens. ‘Telephone companies involved with the NSA’s “bulk” data-collection program are expanding their own data gathering on the Internet and mobile devices as well. This information is used to create dossiers—online targeting profiles—on individuals. These personal digital records can reveal details on our financial status, health concerns, ethnicity/race, political interests, buying habits, and the technology we use.’[10]

See http://www.centerfordigitaldemocracy.org/…/NSATTIPHandout12… for more examples.

Exceptions to the free flow of information requirement

Based on past U.S. free trade agreements, any exceptions the U.S. government will agree to are likely to be difficult to use and insufficient to protect the policies, laws and regulations that national or sub national governments may currently have or want to use in future.

CAP views that in the TPP, Malaysia should not agree to a requirement to have free flow of information across borders or a ban on requirements to have local servers. We urge the Malaysian government to seriously consider our concerns on the impingement of our privacy and other concerns raised earlier and hence withdraw from the TPP negotiations. 

We believe that if Malaysia signs the TPPA it will lead to many negative effects that can be disastrous to the social and economic fabric of our country. Thus CAP calls on the Malaysian government to not sign the TPPA.


S.M. MOHAMED IDRIS
President

[1] For example http://www.ustr.gov/…/bl…/2013/march/tpp-21st-century-issues and Inside U.S. Trade – 08/23/2013.
[2] ‘Internet service companies would have to follow Brazilian privacy laws and the government may also decide to store sensitive data such as tax information within the country to protect it from foreign spies’ Brazil’s Internet Policy Secretary Virgilio Almeida told reporters, http://www.bloomberg.com/…/facebook-google-face-brazil-stor….
[3] Eg http://www.theguardian.com/…/nhs-patient-data-available-com…
[4] Something the U.S. government has complained about: http://www.ustr.gov/…/fi…/2014%20NTE%20Report%20on%20FTB.pdf.
[5] Inside U.S. Trade – 08/23/2013.
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/…/tech-companies-bristling-concede-t…
[7] http://www.theguardian.com/…/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa…
[8] http://www.theregister.co.uk/…/microsoft_encryption_nsa_sp…/, http://www.theregister.co.uk/…/nsa_and_uk_hacked_yahoo_and_…
[9] For example http://arstechnica.com/…/inside-the-nsas-leaked-catalog-of…/, http://www.theguardian.com/…/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-us… 
[10] http://www.centerfordigitaldemocracy.org/…/NSATTIPHandout12…

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Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah satu badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang telah sekian lama berjuang mempertahan kelestarian alam. Ia juga mendidik masyarakat tentang pentingnya kebersamaan dalam pemikiran dan tindakan agar alam ini dapat kita wariskan kepada generasi hadapan dalam keadaan yang elok dan terpelihara. Dalam pada itu juga SAM giat membantu golongan nelayan pantai dalam memperjuangkan hak-hak mereka sehinggalah tertubuhnya Persatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING). Nelayan pantai sepenuh masa ini dididik oleh SAM sehingga mereka mampu memainkan peranan sebagai pemimpin nelayan yang meneruskan kesinambungan memperjuangkan hak-hak nelayan pantai lainnya. Sebagai contoh SAM telah berjaya menyedarkan masyarakat nelayan keperluan menjaga hutan paya bakau untuk kebaikan hasil tangkapan nelayan itu sendiri.
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Jamaluddin Mohamad BualikPersatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Jaringan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING)
During the 1980s, I used to read about the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) in the news. After retirement, some time in 2001, while lazing around, I read news about the construction of a carbon in leach plant using sodium cyanide to extract gold in Bukit Koman. My friends and I visited CAP and we were introduced to SAM and her legal team. We discussed the details of filing a case against the gold mining company and the department of environment with Ms Meenakshi Raman and her legal team. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between lawyers from SAM and many of us from Bukit Koman. We had many ups and downs in our struggle to shut down the gold mine that was causing a nuisance in our village. But, as a community we never gave up because SAM had our backs.
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Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah sebuah NGO yang memperjuangkan nasib masyarakat luar bandar khasnya. SAM menerima aduan-aduan masyarakat dan menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapi. SAM telah mewujudkan ramai aktivis-aktivis sosial dan alam sekitar. Pada era 1980 dan 90an SAM sangat dihormati oleh masyarakat dan agensi kerajaan. Apabila media sosial menguasai maklumat maka SAM pun terkesan dan masalah masyarakat terus disalurkan dengan pelbagai cara. SAM perlu mewujudkan aktivis-aktivis pelapis yang muda untuk terus membantu masyarakat. SAM juga perlu membuat perubahan supaya banyak turun kelapangan dan jangan mengharapkan laporan media sahaja. Tingkatkan prestasi sebagaimana pada zaman kegemilangan SAM di era 80-90an.
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No. 1, Jalan Joki, 11400 Penang,
Malaysia
Tel: +604 827 6930
Fax: +604 827 6932

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