Keep Calm and Carry On!

With the Brexit vote accomplished and the future of the UK in question, many employers with operations in the UK or the EU are questioning the application of existing privacy laws to their employees or subsidiaries there.  For the meantime—at least according to the current U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK is treating privacy under its status quo rules: “The Data Protection Act remains the law of the land irrespective of the referendum result.” And even if the UK ultimately determines not to comply with the GDPR as a member of the EU, if it wants to trade with the EU, it will have to show that its privacy practices are “adequate”.  In “other words, U.K. data protection standards would have to be equivalent to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation framework starting in 2018.”  Thus, for now, we can all keep calm and carry on. 

Brexit has kept the UK Commissioner’s Office busy as well.  According to Fortune, the organization promoting the idea of leaving the EU was recently fined 50,000 pounds (approx. $72,000) for spam texts it sent Britons during the run up to the historic vote.