The term 'privacy law' in the US tends to translate to 'data protection law' in Europe. Data protection law imposes a set of rules which govern the processing of personal data by commercial organisations. Personal data is any data from which a living individual can be identified, whether from the data itself, or from the data and other information in the possession of the person handling the data.
'Data processing' can involve accessing or manipulating data held on computer in some way. It can arise from something as simple as storing or accessing a computer file containing personal details, or from more sophisticated manipulation such as matching names to other criteria held on computer. It follows that virtually every organisation is involved in processing personal data, and is as a result potentially subject to data protection legislation in those jurisdictions where it is active. Contrary to popular belief this is not limited to the EU - more than 30 different European
