The EU and US are negotiating a trade deal called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, but data protection laws may not be addressed due to recent revelations that the US spies on EU leaders like Angela Merkel. While this has caused diplomatic issues, the trade deal is seen as too important to risk failing over these spying concerns. As a result, data protection laws may be sidelined during negotiations in favor of other trade matters. However, companies should still take steps to protect their own data security such as using remote data storage in the cloud.

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Data Protection May Be Sidelined As EU and US
Talk Trade
The EU and US could not be picking a more interesting time to be
talking about trade, partly because of the state of the world economy
– hopefully in the early stages of a prolonged recovery – but also
due to the recent revelations that the Americans have been spying
on key leaders like German chancellor Angela Merkel.

2. Mrs Merkel's revelations have been followed by many more and this
has raised the question of whether data protection will be among the
issues to be covered by a US-EU trade deal. The activities of the
National Security Agency (NSA) have certainly generated diplomatic
issues, but whether they will act as the catalyst for new policies is
another thing.
However, reports suggest that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership that leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have invested
much of their time, energy and political capital into is regarded on both
sides as being too important to risk derailing over the snooping row.
Therefore, the issue of stronger data protection laws may be placed
very firmly on the back burner while negotiations take place on other
trade matters in a bid to boost growth.

3. For some, it may seem this does not matter so much; that the issue is
one of excitement to sections of the media, but is ultimately only a
direct concern for European governments and those whose job is to
protect their phones and computers from spying. However, many
companies might consider whether their own security could be
compromised by holes in existing legislation.
At the same time, the bulk of the data spying activity is carried out for
specifically criminal purposes and will breach existing laws, such as the
UK's Data Protection Act. In either instance, the key for companies is to
make sure their own data is kept safe.

4. Remote data storage is one clear and obvious way to do this. It means
information can be kept safe off-site, removed from paper and
transferred to microfiche or – if electronic – taken off hard drives and
memory sticks and kept safe in remote storage locations with high
physical security as well as extensive expertise in protecting
information from any attempts to steal it.
Alternatively, it can be stored in the cloud, where access remains
restricted to those who are authorised and where this same ability to
reach the information can be held by those with the expertise to
maintain security.

5. The prospects of a transatlantic deal on data security may have
receded further with news in the Independent today (November 5th)
that Germany's foreign ministry has called in the British ambassador
Simon McDonald amid concerns that the UK's embassy is being used
as a spying base through high-tech equipment on its roof, based on
claims leaked by former NSA spy Edward Snowden.
If European governments are all spying on each other – or helping
others do so – it may be of little use for companies to seek to ask their
own leaders to draw up new laws and measures to protect them.
Indeed, it might prompt both firms and private citizens to conclude that
no data is safe unless substantial steps are taken to protect it.

6. That does not mean that western governments are likely to be
monitoring the average commercial enterprise. However, the fact that
the technology exists to hack, tap and spy in all manner of ways should
act as a reminder that there are others who will use it too, with
malevolent intentions ranging from disruption to the outright theft of
data for pecuniary gain.
However, there may be an increasing threat to commercial, nongovernmental data at state level in the future. According to a recent
survey by accountancy firm KPMG, the next banking crisis will be
caused not by the sort of recklessness that led to the 2007-08 crash,
but by a major cyber-attack, which could be launched by rogue states
wanting to weaken western economies for ideological reasons.

7. Storetec News/Blogs."http://www.storetec.net/news-blog/dataprotection-may-be-sidelined-as-eu-and-us-talk-trade/". Data Protection
May Be Sidelined As EU and US Talk Trade. November 5, 2013.
Storetec.