22 September 2020You may not be aware that a recent judgement handed down by the European Court of Justice will affect the way that we store our data.
Town and parish councils of every size are responsible for managing large amounts of data which are often held in cloud storage. If this storage is operated within the United States the European Court of Justice ruling has now removed the Privacy Shield which had, until July 2020, been in place between the EU and US.
The European Commission and European Data Protection Board (EDPB) are working to put together more detailed guidance on any extra measures which may have to be taken and advise that organisations should implement any changes as soon as new advice is forthcoming.
In the meantime the EDPB advise that you carry out a risk assessment and establish where your data is stored and if you have adequate protection within the local legal framework. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) state that as the supervisory authority they are ‘taking the time to consider carefully what this means in practice. We will continue to apply a risk-based and proportionate approach in accordance with our Regulatory Action Policy’.
