Criminal Laws vs. Privacy Laws This paper will attempt to answer the question, "Can a private investigator or internal auditor, for the sake of clarifying an allegation/suspicion of fraud, breach the privacy regulations in order to access some personal information?" For the sake of argument, we will say that the answer is "No." This leads to another question, "Where should we draw the line between public interest and privacy interest?"

Here in the United States, it has almost gotten to the point where there is no privacy anymore. Anyone with access to a computer and the money to pay for it can pull up any type of information wanted or needed about another person. This includes criminal records, employment records, driving records and monetary records. If you watch television shows about private investigators or detectives, you see that they can access any information about an individual at any time, without the person's permission.

In European countries and other "common law" countries, there is a big difference. For example, in Hong Kong, "the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD)...

486) which came into force on the 20th December, 1996." (PCPD)
PCPD had a conference on 13th June, 2012 which was attended by 260 delegates and they discussed different types of privacy issues. One of the keynote speakers was Ken Anderson, Assistant Commissioner (Privacy) from Ontario (Canada) who spoke on Privacy by Design: What's Been Happening? In his presentation he stated the following definition:

Personally-identifiable information ("PII") can be biographical, biological, genealogical, historical, transactional, locational, relational, computational, vocational or reputational, and is the stuff that makes up our modern identity

Personal information must be managed responsibly. When it is not, accountability is undermined and confidence in our evolving information society is eroded.

He also stated facts about how the international community is working towards embracing his "Privacy By Design" pardigm. For example, in December 2010, the U.S. Federal Trade…