The Transfer of Personal Data to Third Countries Under EU Directive 95/46/EC

The 1981 Council of Europe Convention 108 and EU Directive 95/46/ EC assert that data protection is privacy protection. Consequently, countries with data protection rules control trans-border data flows to protect the rights of their citizens. Under the Directive, but subject to some derogations, personal data may only be transferred to third countries with adequate protection. 'Adequacy' is to be assessed in the light of all the circumstances. Alternative safeguards can be provided by means such as contractual arrangements. The Data Protection Commissioners have tried to define 'adequacy' as the usual data protection principles plus an assurance of compliance. This can be delivered by self-regulation as well as formal law. The Directive has not made a radical break with the past. The usual principles are those found in Convention 108 and in the 1980 OECD Guidelines. Those instruments also dealt with the control of trans-border data flows because of fears of restrictions on the free flow of information. The flexibility of the effective current UK law, which permits flows whilst preventing those which would lead to a breach of data protection, would have prevented the acrimony of the current debate with third countries. National laws on transborder data flows long pre-date the Directive and data protection authorities can be expected to continue to promote pragmatic methods of protecting exported data such as the use of model contracts either as a basis for derogation from 'adequacy' or as part of a package to satisfy the adequacy test. Work is taking place to build bridges between those with formal law and others relying on self-regulation. In Ottawa last October OECD ministers reaffirmed the 1980 Guidelines and if practical privacy protection can be secured globally, transborder data-flow control is of much less concern.     

On the blackness of kettles: Inter-industry comparisons in rates of technological innovation

Conventional indirect measures of technological change in industry are shown to mislead analysts of the building industry. The result is a continuing popular and academic misreading of the industry. The diffusion of 14 innovations in the industry are measured empirically rather than inferentially and differences in diffusion rates are related to the industry's management of those innovations. A joint public-private strategy for managing future innovations is suggested.Paper prepared for an MIT-Sloan Foundation, Technology and Public Policy Workshop, February 16–17, 1979, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The views expressed are the author's own and reflect the results of earlier research supported by the MIT-Harvard Joint Center for Urban Studies, the International City Management Association, and the Harvard-MIT Study of the Construction Industry. The author's views are not necessarily shared by the National Bureau of Standards. An abbreviated version of this article appeared in the November 1979 Technology Review.     

Entertaining repression: Music and politics in postcolonial Cameroon

This article examines the relationship between musicians andpolitical power in Cameroon in order to make a case for understandingthe dynamics of agency and identity politics among musicians.It argues that politicians in Cameroon have tended to appropriatemusicians and their creative efforts as part of their drivefor power. Some musicians have refused to be at the beck andcall of politicians and have tended to criticize and ridiculethose in power. Others have seen in such invitations an opportunityfor greater recognition and respectability. Some have soughtto straddle both worlds, serving politicians while also pursuingtheir art in the interest of other constituencies. Their differentresponses notwithstanding, there is evidence that the fortunesand statuses of musicians have been transformed with changingpolitical regimes and notions of politics.     

The Resurgence of the Niger Delta Militants and the Survival of the Nigerian State

The 2016 resumption of hostilities in the oil-rich Niger Delta region that is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy, in a dwindling international oil price, has become a subject of controversy. This analysis, which is based on empirical evidence from primary and secondary sources, shows a group of militants—the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), selective anti-corruption crusade, the clamp down on federal government structure in the Niger Delta, amnesty time limit to Niger Delta ex-militants, self–determination and the attempt to single out former President Goodluck Jonathan from Niger Delta, among other former presidents for prosecution, as the core drivers of insecurity in the oil-rich region. It is suggested that the Nigerian government should embrace the power of dialogue that has brought relative peace in the Niger Delta region from 2009 to 2015, as a veritable tool to stop the ongoing hostilities.