The impact of international data protection legislation on the cloud is complicated and constantly changing. In our recent SNIA Cloud Storage Webcast on this topic we did our best to cover some of the recent global data privacy and data protection regulations being enacted. If you missed the Webcast, I encourage you to watch it on-demand at your convenience. We answered questions during the live event, but as promised we’re providing more complete answers in this blog. If you have additional questions, please comment here and we’ll reply as soon as we can.
The law is complex, and neither SNIA, the authors nor the presenters of this presentation are lawyers. Nothing here or in the presentation should be construed as legal advice. For that you need the services of a qualified professional.
Q. What are your thoughts on Safe Harbour being considered invalid, and the potential for a Safe Harbour 2
A. Since 6 October 2015 when the European Court of Justice invalidated the European Commission’s Safe Harbour Decision, there’s been a lot written about Safe Harbour 2 in the press. But it was clear that a renegotiation was essential two years before that, when discussions for a replacement were started. Many think (and many hope!) that a new and valid agreement in terms of Europe’s Human Rights legislation will be settled between the US and Europe sometime in March 2016.
Q. Are EU Model Clauses still available to use instead of BCRs (Binding Corporate Rules)?
A. EU-US data transfers facilitated by the use of model clauses probably today fail to comply with EU law. But as there appears to be no substitute available, the advice appears to be – use them for now until the problem is fixed. Full guidance can be found on the EC website.
Q. What does imbalance mean relative to consent?
A. An example might help. You might be an employee and agree (the “consent”) to your data being used by your employer in ways that you might not have agreed to normally – perhaps because you feel you can’t refuse because you might lose your job or a promotion for example. That’s an imbalanced relationship, and the consent needs to be seen in that light, and the employer needs to demonstrate that there has been, and will be, no coercion to give consent.