8 The discussion which follows is taken almost verbatim from the testimony of Henry Geller, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, given to the House Government Subcommittee on Information and Individual Rights, March 27, 1980, pp. 15-22.

9 The Draft Recommendation of the Council concerning Guidelines Governing the Protection of Privacy and Transborder Flows of Personal Data, 19 ILM 318 (1980). The Guidelines subsequently received approval of the Council and are now in effect, with only four abstentions.

10 Data on a citizen of country A may be collected in country B, processed in country C, stored in country D and used by a corporation in country E. Indeed this may become a norm in the future. For a more extended discussion of this issue, see Fishman, Introduction to Transborder Data Flows, 16 STANFORD J. INT'LL. 1 (1980).

11 For example, in the course of drafting the OECD Guidelines on personal privacy, it was suggested that the problem of regulating data transiting state B on the way from A to C could usefully be analogized to the traditional maritime concept of “innocent passage.”

12 Final decision in Docket 20828 (Computer Inquiry), April 7, 1980, 77 FCC 2d 384 (1980).

13 PTT refers to the government agencies which provide telecommunications and postal sevices in most countries. It is an abbreviation of “Posts Telegraph and Telephone Administration.”