Data Protection - “Commissioner Gives International Data Transfers Thumbs Up”

The Information Commissioner has, for the first time in what may be a landmark decision, allowed personal data held by a company to be transferred abroad on the basis of the Binding Corporate Rules. The Information Commissioner’s decision permitting General Electric to legally pass information about their employees to other divisions of the group located outside the European Economic Area represents a significant step forward for companies in their battle to transfer personal data abroad, and may revolutionise the ease with which international data transfers can occur within an organisation.

As the world continues to shrink, global business and markets become more the rule than the exception and it is commercially imperative for companies to be able to pass information readily between their offices scattered around the globe. In a bid to help, the EU Data Protection Working Party proposed a set of Binding Corporate Rules which would continue to protect the rights and freedoms of the