Hot data

As the EU updates its regulatory regime, Eduardo Ustaran argues that data protection compliance could be about to get more onerous

What do the collapse of Barings Bank, OJ Simpson’s trial and the European directive on data protection have in common? Answer: they all happened in 1995, well before Google, Facebook, iPhones, apps, cloud computing and the internet as we know it.

An obvious conclusion follows: the ­current data protection regime is no longer fit for purpose. At least, that is the message the European Commission has been hearing since it started its data protection legislative review process two years ago.

Now we are close to seeing a radical new framework. The proposal for a 21st-­century data protection law is still in the making in Brussels’ corridors of power, but we can make an informed guess of what we will be presented with.

Regulation ahoy

Much of the debate surrounding this process so far has been about the form the new framework will take. If, as has been made patently clear, the primary objective of the reform is to achieve the greatest possible degree of harmonisation the commission is likely to favour a regulation over another directive.

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Source: thelawyer.com
By: Eduardo Ustaran