New book about Data Protection will help organisations and professionals with Data Transfer between the EU and post-Brexit Britain

This is the first paper that presents legal options for data controllers and data processors in a post-Brexit Britain

LONDON/ Brussels – The Blue Paper on Data Protection: Data Transfer Between the European Union and Third Countries (ISBN: 1-908585-10-2) by Guido Reinke is the first publication to provide robust legal options for data professionals and policy options for law-makers concerning data transfers between the EU and a post-Brexit UK. Written for industry professionals, political practitioners (including civil servants), academic scholars, and all who need more insight into how Brexit will likely change the UK’s data protection framework. The author provides practical guidance that can finesse an emotional debate. The assessments it provides range across such essential matters as partial versus full adequacy decisions; Standard Contractual Clauses; Binding Corporate Rules; Approved Codes of Conduct; data protection certifications, marks and seals; derogations; and a transitional versus an “ambitious” EU-UK data protection agreement. The options are ranked by practicability for businesses, and there is a discussion of possible changes caused by a diverging UK legal framework. 

This Blue Paper also overviews the current privacy framework before critically describing the UK’s post-Brexit data transfer problem and some possible solutions. This entails a review of Council of Europe Convention 108+ on transborder data flows, and key rulings by the European Court of Human Rights on the privacy implications of the European Convention on Human rights. The Paper contains policy recommendations for legislators, politicians and ministers to achieve the best possible outcomes for businesses and citizens. Finally, it gives a synopsis of the challenges that the UK is facing in defining its future data relationship with the EU, particularly due to the practices of UK law enforcement and intelligence services.

The author notes that “the transition to a digital economy and the increasing importance of (personal) Big Data ought to suggest recognition of a fifth freedom [besides the free movement of goods, services, capital, and labour]: the free movement of data”. Leaving the Single Market means that the UK could lose this asset. Lord Tim Clement-Jones, previously Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, stresses that “safeguarding personal data processing by Artificial Intelligence must always be a top priority, and requires putting in place adequate data transfer and data sharing agreements”. Professor Julia H?rnle from the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University deems it urgent for the UK and the EU to make data protection the top priority, as “the threat to our economy and well-being, as well as to national security, are too great for this issue being thrown in the crowded pot of trade negotiation issues, which will not be resolved for many years to come”.

Brexit is the UK’s most far-reaching political transformation in over two generations, and data protection in a digital economy has become one of the biggest challenges globally. This book provides the full-spectrum of knowledge and tools called for in order to make the best of a self-inflicted predicament. An understanding of the risks and how to manage them is prerequisite to sealing the genie up inside the bottle.  

“Blue Paper on Data Protection: Data transfer between the European Union and Third Counties – Legal options for data transfer and data processors in a post-Brexit Britain” is available at Amazon.co.uk and through other channels in more than 50 countries, including in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, USA, Canada and Japan.  For the Official Publication, see Amazon UK, Germany, France and other channels.

About the Author Guido Reinke is a Data Protection Officer with a business assurance and regulatory compliance background. He has advised firms on how to design and implement global privacy frameworks. After working for the European Commission, he took employment with regulated industries and at Big Four professional services firms. He holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of London, and has lectured on Regulatory Governance at the London School of Economics. He is also author of a Brexit Impact Assessment bestseller and of several other compliance publications.