The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic whose contiguous states are in central North America; it also has outlying states Alaska and Hawaii along with other territories. Its founding documents and dates have attained celebrity status, exemplified by Schoolhouse Rock songs about the US Constitution and the worldwide fame (or infamy) of its July 4th holiday celebrating its 1776 independence from Britain.The US is an economic power that can't be ignored, and thus even with its War on Terror-era Patriot Act and other legislation that impacts privacy negatively, the EU has carved out a set of Safe Harbor rules that US companies can uniquely be certified to follow, to allow relatively easy flow of data between the regions.