Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank Announces U.S. Participation in APEC's Cross Border Privacy Rules System

Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank announced the United States’ participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (APEC) Cross Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) system.

This voluntary system promotes a baseline set of data privacy practices for companies doing business in participating APEC economies. The goal of the system is to enhance electronic commerce, facilitate trade and economic growth, and strengthen consumer privacy protections across the Asia Pacific region. The 21 member economies in APEC comprise a market of 2.7 billion consumers, and account for 55 percent of world real gross domestic product, as well as 44 percent of world trade. On November 13, 2011, President Obama and representatives from the other APEC economies endorsed the CBPR system at the APEC Leaders Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii. In the APEC Leaders’ Declaration, President Obama and his counterparts committed to implementing the CBPR system to further open markets and facilitate regional trade. The United States plans to work with APEC to launch the system in the next six months.

The Federal Trade Commission welcomed the approval of the United States' participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cross-Border Privacy Rules system. The APEC privacy system is a self-regulatory initiative to enhance the protection of consumer data that moves between the United States and other APEC members through a voluntary but enforceable code of conduct implemented by participating businesses. President Obama and representatives from the other APEC economies endorsed the system in November 2011. On July 25, the United States was approved as the first formal participant in the system and the FTC as the system's first privacy enforcement authority.