The extraterritorial application of the EU Directive on data protection

Abstract

At present, the processing of cross-border data flows has increased substantially. In the European Union, the 95/46/EC Directive established a harmonized system aiming to protect personal data. The need for legal security determines the importance of establishing in which situations the standard of protection of Directive 95/46/EC is applicable. This paper seeks to identify these situations, highlighting the extraterritorial application of the Directive and taking into account the current data processing techniques. The changes introduced by the proposed European Union Data Protection Regulation will also be analysed.