A country that fails to legally protect personal data in order to attract companies engaged in
collection of such data is referred to as a

A.
data pirate

B.
data haven

C.
country of convenience

D.
sanctional nation

Explanation:
Correct answer is B. Data Haven.
Data Haven
A place where data that cannot legally be kept can be stashed for later use; an offshore web host.
This is an interesting topic; companies often need information that they are not legally allowed to
know. For example, some hospitals are not allowed to mark patients as HIV positive (because it
stigmatizes patients); staff members create codes or other ways so they can take the necessary
steps to protect themselves.
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=279
DATA HAVEN
This phrase has been around for at least 15 years, but only in a specialist way. One sense is that
of a place of safety and security for electronic information, for example where encrypted copies of
crucial data can be stored as a backup away from one’s place of business. But it can also mean a
site in which data can be stored outside the jurisdiction of regulatory authorities. This sense has
come to wider public notice recently as a result of Neal Stephenson’s book Cryptonomicon, in
which the establishment of such a haven in South East Asia is part of the plot. In a classic case of
life imitating art, there is now a proposal to set up a data haven on one of the old World War Two

forts off the east coast of Britain, which declared independence under the name of Sealand back
in 1967 (it issues its own stamps and money, for example). The idea is to get round a proposed
British law-the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill (RIP)-that would force firms to hand over
decryption keys if a crime is suspected and make Internet providers install equipment to allow
interception of e-mails by the security services.
The Privacy Act doesn’t protect information from being transferred from New Zealand to data
havens-countries that don’t have adequate privacy protection.
[Computerworld, May 1999]
The government last night poured cold water on a plan by a group of entrepreneurs to establish a
“data haven” on a rusting iron fortress in the North Sea in an attempt to circumvent new anticryptography laws.
[Guardian, June 2000]
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Not C: The majority google searches for ‘Country of Convenience’ relate to those countries
supporting terrorism.
Not D: the meaning of sanctioned is listed below. This would mean that countries that DON’T
protect privacy are APPROVED
Main Entry: 2sanction
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): sanc*tioned; sanc*tion*ing
Date: 1778
1 to make valid or binding usually by a formal procedure (as ratification)
2 to give effective or authoritative approval or consent