EU data-protection adequacy standards remain unaddressed, as UK hurtles towards Brexit

MLex Market Insight

The future of data flows between the United Kingdom and the European Union in a post-Brexit world aren’t at the top of the agenda in negotiations between the two sides, but a failure to reach an agreement could have a significant impact on trade. The impasse centers on concerns by EU courts that the UK’s surveillance laws that allow for “general and indiscriminate” bulk collection of data are at odds with the EU’s data-protection rules. Meanwhile, provincial governments in Canada are so concerned about the shortcomings of the country’s federal data-protection legislation that they’re preparing to go their own way to meet the requirements of the EU’s sprawling General Data Protection Regulation.