EU Board Advises Companies to Assess Foreign Data Surveillance

European privacy regulators are warning companies to assess government surveillance in countries where their citizens’ data is headed—a potentially daunting task that could be a boon for lawyers and consultants.

The European Data Protection Board is calling on companies to analyze surveillance laws whenever data on European citizens is sent overseas or accessed remotely from countries deemed to have inadequate privacy protections.

Such analysis is aimed at revealing how likely foreign governments are to access data on European Union citizens, depending on a company’s own experience and those of others in their industry, according to the board’s recommendations.

The ...