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What You Need to Know to Get Started with Privacy Shield Certification

By David F. Katz
March 02, 2017

If your company maintains operations in the European Union or is U.S. based but obtaining personal data from European citizens, you will need to strongly consider obtaining certification under the new Privacy Shield framework. Certification began in August 2016, and will make compliance with EU privacy laws when transferring data to the U.S. possible for the immediate future.

European privacy laws are considerably more stringent than those in the U.S., and the certification under the Privacy Shield is critical for businesses that want to avoid inquiries and fines in their overseas outposts. The best practices your company follows on American soil simply are not enough in the EU. American companies may regard Social Security numbers and credit card numbers as sensitive data, but in the EU, even IP addresses and geographic location data collected on phones are protected personal data. Checkout clerks in Europe do not ask for customers' phone numbers and employers cannot read workers' email. It's a different universe for privacy rights.

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