Protecting data

"These are truly exhilarating times for the data protection world. Viviane Reding’s recent announcement of the Commission’s proposal for a fully harmonised European data protection framework had the connotations of an Olympic opening ceremony—the years of hard work in preparation for this moment, the sense of achievement in the face of challenge and the triumphant belief that something memorable is going to come out of this. Only the big drums and the flame were missing. The jury is now out but this is without a doubt the most significant global legislative development affecting the collection, use and protection of personal information of the past 15 years.

As expected, the proposed new general framework for data protection is set out in a regulation, rather than another directive. This means that once adopted, the regulation will be directly and universally applicable across all EU member states without the need for national legislation. Recent legislative history suggests that a single EU-wide regulation is likely to