FICO announced that it has joined the “Safe Harbor” list of U.S. companies that agree to comply with European privacy rules.

Companies that add their name to the Safe Harbor list adhere to the safe harbor framework developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce in coordination with the European Commission.

The Safe Harbor provides guidance for U.S. organizations on how to provide adequate protection for personal data from Europe, as required by the European Union's Directive on Data Protection. Companies on the list must not only agree to follow the Directive’s rules, they must be in compliance already.

For the past ten years, FICO has had so-called “model clauses” language in its contracts with European Union companies, in which it vouchsafes that it is bound by European privacy laws. The company’s strict privacy policies are also stated online.

“By joining the Safe Harbor list, we are reassuring every European business that we take privacy as seriously as they do,” says Mike Gordon, vice president and managing director of FICO in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “While we are not a data provider, our solutions rely on analyzing sensitive customer data in order to develop powerful predictive analytics. FICO can engage our global analytics team on client projects, and give our European clients greater access to hosted solutions, while giving our clients confidence that their data is protected under the world’s strictest rules.”

The full list of US-based companies on the Safe Harbor list is available at https://safeharbor.export.gov/list.aspx. FICO is listed under its full corporate name, Fair Isaac Corporation, and was certified to Safe Harbor effective October 18, 2011.