After a year of turmoil following the abolition of Safe Harbor, and the controversial birthing of its replacement, Privacy Shield, the European Commission now looks more determined than ever to keep EU-U.S. data flows going at any cost. Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip is due to present a draft law banning “forced data localization” before the end of the year. Approximately 21 EU countries currently have laws requiring companies to store certain types of data locally, and last month a new coalition of cloud companies published a voluntary code of conduct aimed at keeping European data inside Europe. But as the clock ticks on the controversial Trade in Services Agreement, Ansip said he wants to eliminate legal barriers to online cross-border trade — including forced data localization rules, Jennifer Baker reports in this exclusive for The Privacy Advisor.
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