Boulder, Co. – The Booth Company, an international provider of leadership and management assessments since 1973, has just been approved with the Safe Harbor certification by the U.S. Department of Commerce. This means that it also meets the confidentiality requirements of the European Union where it has conducted 360 assessments even before the creation of the EU. As the first 360 feedback publisher on the web in the 1990’s, The Booth Company has always met or exceeded the highest standards of personal data privacy. Its clients have entrusted The Booth Company with hundreds of millions of survey responses as well as entire HR databases. Safe Harbor will add another source of security for clients and individual leaders and managers throughout the world.
The safe harbor — approved by the EU in 2000 — is an important way for U.S. companies to avoid experiencing interruptions in their business dealings with the EU or facing prosecution by European authorities under European privacy laws. Certifying to the safe harbor assures that EU organizations know that The Booth Company provides “adequate” privacy protection, as defined by The European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection.
Tom Kuhne, Vice President and CIO for The Booth Company, said, “We’ve always had strong privacy policies. But the legal definitions of privacy are different between the EU and the US – theirs are more specific. Safe Harbor certification helps assure clients and prospects that we do follow the latest guidelines for privacy.”
As part of the Safe Harbor certification, The Booth Company has joined the Better Business Bureau Safe Harbor Dispute Resolution Program, which provides a third party to resolve complaints about privacy issues. Certification was awarded on July 28, 2009.
