The US Safe Harbor - Fact or Fiction? (2008)

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3. Safe Harbor participants

In October 2008 the Department of Commerce claimed that ‘today, nearly 1,700 U.S. organizations [have] certified to Safe Harbor’.[7] The public website for the Safe Harbor states that ‘more than 1,500 U.S. companies participate in the Safe Harbor’.[8]

The Department of Commerce also publish the following chart[9] to display total membership:

Although the graph carries the label ‘accumulative membership’, this is not correct. Galexia downloaded the Safe Harbor list on 17 Oct 2008 and there were 1,597 records (including 19 doubles, triples and the test file).[10] However, 342 of these organisations were listed as ‘not current’ by the Department of Commerce. A further 136 organisations have failed to renew their certification by the required date and are listed as ‘not current’ in this study, bringing the total of ‘not current’ organisations to 478.

Allowing a generous 6 week grace period for renewals only reduces the number of ‘not current’ organisations by 18. This is because the vast majority of ‘not current’ organisations have ceased to exist, have left the Safe Harbor permanently, or have failed to renew for 6 months or longer.

Claims that the cumulative membership of the Safe Harbor are approaching 1700, or that 1500 companies ‘participate’ in the Safe Harbor are simply incorrect. Once doubles, triples and ‘not current’ organisations are removed, only 1109 organisations remain.

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[7] Greer D, The U.S.-E.U. Safe Harbor Framework - Past, Present, & Future, presentation to the Workshop On International Transfers Of Personal Data, Brussels, 21 October 2008,
<http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/news/information_dossiers/personal_data_workshop/doc/Presentation_Greer.ppt>.

[8] <http://www.export.gov/SafeHarbor/Safe_Harbor_Announcement.asp>

[9] Greer D, The U.S.-E.U. Safe Harbor Framework - Past, Present, & Future, presentation to the Workshop On International Transfers Of Personal Data, Brussels, 21 October 2008,
<http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/news/information_dossiers/personal_data_workshop/doc/Presentation_Greer.ppt>.

[10] On 17 November 2008 there were 1633 records.

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