GDPR Reform Worries About Data Transfer Are 'Storm in a Teacup,' Lawyer Says
Concerns about whether proposed changes to the GDPR in the European Commission's digital omnibus package could harm data flows between the EU and the U.K. are a "storm in a teacup" aimed at pressuring the EC's proposals, Shoosmiths privacy lawyer Alice Wallbank emailed us Monday.
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A more likely outcome of GDPR reform in the long term will be "tarnishing the 'best in class' status" of the law, she said.
Most of the changes would, if approved, diverge in some respects from U.K. data protection law, Stephenson Harwood data protection attorneys said in a Nov. 27 analysis that assessed how the 10 key proposed GDPR changes compare with U.K. law (see 2512100006).
Shoosmiths privacy attorney Sherif Malak said in an email Monday that the U.K. Information Commissioner's Office and the government "have remained rather tight-lipped" about the digital omnibus, "but I would not expect the proposal to jeopardize adequacy granted to the EU by the UK," just as U.K. reform in the Data (Use and Access) Act is "unlikely to jeopardize adequacy granted to the UK by the EU."
There's "clearly a legislative appetite to streamline the GDPR, a law which was always going to be stress-tested by the pace of technological development," Malak said. If the proposed changes are implemented, "there may be calls to further reform UK laws to align with the EU." That would be "somewhat ironic," given that the DUAA represented Britain's "enjoyment of the Brexit dividend," he added.
"The UK may raise eyebrows at the changes to the definition of personal data, but UK guidance is already more permissive than the EU on this," said Wallbank. Data transfer adequacy decisions on both sides are unlikely to be called into question, particularly while the U.K. and EU are "strongly bound by mutual concerns over trade, defence, energy security, and democratic processes."