It is my *impression* that "data protection" was originally Eurospeak and thus got adopted officially in Britain in connection with the European data Protection Directive.

"Data Privacy" ist doch nur für die persönlichen Daten gedacht. (see Data Privacy Act)
This is a part of Data Protection which covers all measures of keeping your company's data (secrets) out of the hands of the competition.

Agree with Alan, as regards how it _should_ be (or should have been), but, for instance the "Datenschutzrichtlinie" is usually referred to as the "Data Protection Directive" and Datenschutz is all about personal data.

The Data Protection Directive's full title is
"DIRECTIVE 95/46/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data".

The Germans try (sometimes successfully) to distinguish between "Datenschutz", "Datensicherung" and "Datensicherheit", where "Datensicherung" is about protecting data and "Datenschutz" is about protecting people. "Data protection" should really be a translation of "Datensicherung" (used in the specialist meaning, i.e. not in the sense of "backup").

Neither "data protection" nor "data privacy" reflects what an agreeemnt should be about.

"Data protection" is not an originally english expression and has no well-accepted meaning. "data privacy" refers to the rights of citizens or customers to limit access to personal data.

The expression suggested is for a commercial agreement that rules how a contractor has to treat data made accessible to him under performance of his services.