India will seek ‘adequacy’ status with EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) after it passes its own Personal Data Protection Bill, reports the Economic Times. If granted the adequacy status, it will mean that EU and India recognise each others’ privacy protection regulations along with reducing compliance burden in cross-border data transfers and help the outsourcing and technology industry in attracting clients from Europe, according to the report. EU has granted adequacy status to 14 countries so far Article 45 of the GDPR has a provision that allows transfers of personal data to countries outside the Europe if these countries are found to ensure an adequate level of data protection. The adoption of an adequacy decision involves: a proposal from the European Commission an opinion of the European Data Protection Board an approval from representatives of EU countries the adoption of the decision by the European Commission According to the GDPR, the Commission’s adequacy decision could be limited to specific territories or to more specific sectors within a country. It also envisages that the European Commission would review its adequacy decisions at least every four years. It is also worth noting that adequacy status can be repealed, amended or suspended without retro-active effect. Japan and the EU commission signed a similar deal in January this year that allowed for the free flow of personal data between the two economies on the basis of strong protection guarantees. Apart from Japan, the EU has agreed to a similar arrangement with 13 other countries: Andorra, Argentina, Canada (commercial organisations), Faroe…
