It's interesting how this is described as a potential "bureaucratic nightmare". Having to follow the law of the country your doing business in has been standard operating procedure for, well, basically all of human history.
Somehow the tech industry seems to think it should be exempt from that, even if it means being allowed to piss all over the basic civil rights of citizens of modern Western democracies.
Yes, this is a problem that needs to be solved given the reality modern cross-border online services. But it can't be solved by the corrupt political elite simply selling their citizens hard fought rights to corporations operating from countries that lack respect for such rights.
What sucks about it is that the EU, rather than presenting one set of rules and regulations to follow, and, say, allowing you to host data within the EU to be compliant, seems to have kicked the question down to individual European countries, each of which might do something different.
And you wonder why it's tougher to do startups in Europe...
I'm pleased by what the ruling says about the NSA and the pressure it puts on the need for reform, but less than pleased about the practical implications.
Well the data protection principles are common across the EU - so there's only limited scope for national DPAs to disagree and there's always the opportunity to ask the ECJ for a ruling to clarify.
Somehow the tech industry seems to think it should be exempt from that, even if it means being allowed to piss all over the basic civil rights of citizens of modern Western democracies.
Yes, this is a problem that needs to be solved given the reality modern cross-border online services. But it can't be solved by the corrupt political elite simply selling their citizens hard fought rights to corporations operating from countries that lack respect for such rights.