UK-US Data Bridge Goes Live – Partial Adequacy For UK To US Personal Data Transfers

We recently reported that the EU-US data privacy network (EU-US data bridge) took effect to grant partial adequacy for certain data transfers from the EU to the US. On 12^th October, the UK extension (UK-US data bridge) also took effect and will facilitate the transfer of personal data to the US without need for further safeguards.

What is the UK-US data bridge and how will it help UK data exporters?

Until 12^th October, there was no adequacy decision relating to data transfers from the UK. Following the UK's exit from the EU, the UK Government granted adequacy only in respect of the countries for which an EU adequacy decision had already been granted. At that time, there was no adequacy decision in place for the US, and so transfers of personal data under both EU GDPR and UK GDPR to the US required additional safeguards to be implemented before transfers could take place.