Cloud computing and international data transfers in the new EU regulation

Abstract

Cloud computing is a major technological revolution today. The user of this service ceases to have the data in their computer equipment, to be stored by the service provider or someone who has subcontracted the work. Sometimes the subcontracting chain is wide. Customer data may be moving between different countries, some of them with adequate protection of personal data, but others that do not have this adequate protection. International data transfers appear in this case. In order for these to be legally enforceable, a number of obligations must be fulilled. We will see that the current rules on data protection suffer from a rigidity that discourages compliance. When the new European Data Protection Regulation comes into force, all international transfers, including those occurring in cloud computing services, will be facilitated.