Tech Urges EU Lawmakers OK UK Data Protection 'Adequacy' Plan

EU lawmakers should approve the U.K.'s data protection regime, said 16 tech and business groups Wednesday. They said the European Commission's proposed "adequacy decision" recognizes the country's privacy rules provide sufficient safeguards under the general data protection regulation. The Civil Liberties Committee urged the EC this week to revisit the decision to "bring it in line with EU court rulings and the opinions of the EU privacy supervisor." Legislative concerns included that U.K. law allows for bulk data access without suspicion of crime, and for bulk data retention, which the European Court of Justice says is inconsistent with GDPR rights, and that U.K. data-sharing agreements with the U.S. raise the possibility of Europeans' information being shared despite recent ECJ rulings that U.S. bulk data access is incompatible with the regulation. The draft resolution comes up for vote in plenary May 20. The industry groups said the European Parliament should support the decision because the "negative consequences of an interruption in data flows would be substantial" to U.K. and EU businesses since the EU is Britain's main trading partner. Signatories include the Information Technology Industry Council, Computer and Communications Industry Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.