Appleby (Isle of Man) partner, Claire Milne was among selected delegates at the Westminister eForum on Thursday 8th March in London. Guests of Honour included Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor, Rt Hon the Lord McNally, Minister of State, Ministry of Justice and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords and David Smith, Deputy Commissioner and Director, Data Protection, UK Information Commissioner’s Office.
Entitled “Data Protection and ePrivacy 2012: Responses to the European Data Protection Framework Review” the seminar offered industry experts a timely opportunity to examine the direction of data protection regulation in Europe.
Speaking about the event Claire Milne commented: “Conferences such as these are important to Appleby not just to maintain our existing relationships with leading industry experts but to also assess the impact of European regulatory changes on the Isle of Man and ultimately our clients”, she continued “the European Commission has given the Isle of Man an adequacy finding in relation to our data protection legislation, however if European legislation is updated the Island must ensure that it is not left out in the cold. The draft Regulation creates a sea change in data protection legislation and businesses in the Island will have to re-evaluate how seriously (or otherwise) they take data protection issues.”
Data protection issues are very much at the forefront following the Review of the EU Data Protection Framework and the publication in January of a new draft Regulation. The EU’s 1995 Data Protection framework is recognised as being out of date coming as it did before the Internet and the proliferation of cross border data transfers that we find today. Concerns around portability of data, data security, issues around cloud computing and the sharing of data on social networking sites all mean that the time was right for the 1995 Directive to be reviewed.
Appleby’s regulatory team remains at the forefront of industry developments such as these and offer professional services with respect to the implementation of and adherence to regulatory frameworks including anti-money laudering, financial market and egaming regulations, data protection and anti-bribery laws. For more information please contact Claire Milne, Partner, cmilne@applebyglobal.com.
