OECD Countries Limit Government Access to Personal Data

More than 30 countries on Wednesday finalized a framework for how governments access citizens’ personal data, marking the first effort on such a large scale to tackle tricky surveillance issues across borders.

Officials from the U.S. and the 37 other member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development met in Gran Canaria, Spain, to sign the declaration following around two years of negotiations. The framework touches on sensitive topics such as the purposes for which law-enforcement authorities collect personal data and the oversight bodies that are in place in each country.