"To characterize this as establishing any standard of data protection at all for the TPP countries is laughable; on the contrary, it legitimizes the lack of effective protection and fails to raise the bar even an inch," the Electronic Frontier Foundation said on Thursday.
The group explained the TPP if enacted would allow online advertising networks and data brokers to write their own rules for personal data protection, the only requirement being that they meet "weak and self-serving standards."
"Parties with comprehensive personal data protection laws are encouraged to treat the weak, voluntary arrangements of other parties as in some way equivalent to their own, in order to streamline the exchange of data by these parties across borders," the release said.
TPP’s attempt to weaken regulations to the lowest common denominator, according to the release, is the same approach used in an EU-US agreement that the European Court of Justice struck down earlier this month.
On October 5, the 12 countries of the Pacific Rim region reached an agreement on the wording and subject matter of the TPP free trade deal, which is intended to deregulate trade among the signatory countries. The full text of the TPP free trade agreement was released earlier on Thursday.
The parties to the TPP agreement are the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. The TPP signatories constitute 40 percent of the world economy.
