Transatlantic data privacy law

International flows of personal information are more significant than ever, but differences in transatlantic data privacy law imperil this data trade. The resulting policy debate has led the EU to set strict limits on transfers of personal data to any non-EU country - including the United States - that lacks sufficient privacy protections. Bridging the transatlantic data divide is therefore a matter of the greatest significance. In exploring this issue, this article analyzes the respective legal identities constructed around data privacy in the EU and the United States. It identifies profound differences in the two systems' images of the individual as bearer of legal interests. The EU has created a privacy culture around "rights talk" that protects its "data subjects." In the EU, moreover, rights talk forms a critical part of the postwar European project of creating the identity of a European citizen. In the United States, in contrast, the focus is on a "marketplace discourse" about personal information and the safeguarding of "privacy consumers." In the United States, data privacy law focuses on protecting consumers in a data marketplace. This article uses its models of rights talk and marketplace discourse to analyze how the EU and United States protect their respective data subjects and privacy consumers.