Hard Brexit will affect transfer of personal data between the EU and UK

The lack of a deal between the European Union and the United Kingdom regarding Brexit has created a large amount of uncertainty, especially concerning the supply chains that span the English Channel. EU and U.K. companies are expecting significant delays and backups along the border, if Brexit goes forward without a comprehensive agreement on the flow of goods, services and people. At the same time, the flow of data across borders faces the same uncertainty, with comparable consequences for the unprepared.

The major question surrounding the flow of data between the U.K. and the EU deals with the transfer of personal data from the EU to the UK. In a January blogpost, the U.K.’s Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, lays out the basics: “In a ‘no deal’ situation the UK Government has already made clear its intention to enable data to flow from the UK to EEA countries without any additional measures. But transfers of personal data from the EEA to the UK will be affected,” she wrote. “EU law will require additional measures to be put in place by UK companies when personal data is transferred from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the UK, in order to make them lawful.”

Those additional measures must help prove to EU supervisory authorities that any personal data transferred out of the EU is safe and protected. According to European law, there are a number of different ways personal data can be transferred out of the EU:

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