On 19 June, the European Parliament and the European Commission agreed on new rules on the free flow of non-personal data, i.e. any data not related to an identified or identifiable person, such as anonymised data and machine to machine data.
The new rules create a framework for data storing and processing across the European Union, prohibiting data localisation restrictions. Competent authorities will also be able to access data for scrutiny and supervisory control wherever it is stored or processed. One of the objectives of this new framework is also to encourage the creation of codes of conduct for cloud services to facilitate switching between cloud service providers.
In this context, the new rules primarily affect business and public sector users of data storage and processing services, and individuals acting in a professional capacity.
Background
Back in 2014, the European Commission proposed measures to develop an EU-wide data ecosystem and promote data-driven innovation. As a result, in September 2017, a framework for the free flow of non-personal data was presented. Since then, the proposal has been discussed and amended by the European Parliament and Council which entered into negotiations in early June. The two co-legislators came to an agreement on the final rules on 19 June.
For more information, the press release published by the Commission can be found here.
