As the issue of information privacy increases in complexity in terms of the number of organizations involved, the intricacy of the information flows, and the difficulty of conceiving appropriate legal safeguards, it is not certain that the practices and laws that have been developed for current privacy protection can work for new situations. Electronic mail, innovative telecommunications devices produced by the consumer electronics industry, networking across functional lines or business communities, collection of information exchange byproducts, and file matching have given rise to situations where an individual's traditional expectations for privacy may no longer be fulfilled. Although the principles of providing computer security are fairly well understood, there are major unsolved technical problems related to providing network-wide security safeguards. A variety of legal alternatives exist, but we must be cautious in the design of laws to avoid creating circumstances readily circumvented by technology. Problems are likely to be basically the same for all countries at approximately the same stage of technological advancement, but legal and technological solutions will be country-dependent because of differences in size and heritage. Moreover, many aspects of the privacy issue will become the responsibility of the individual. (KM)