Which country has the best cloud privacy laws?

Keeping customer data private and secure is a massive challenge for enterprises these days. This is because of the rising threat of data breaches and the increasing ambiguity of regional laws and regulations that govern cloud-based data.

Sometimes, these laws can also come into conflict with each other. For example, the case United States v. Microsoft Corp.in the U.S. Supreme Court involved a dispute between Microsoft and the U.S. government about the reach of their Stored Communications Act.

In this specific case, the U.S. government argued that its warrant required U.S.-based service providers to relinquish sensitive data, regardless of where it was stored (and in this case, the ones and zeros were held in a completely different continent).

By contrast, the tech giant argued that the U.S. government’s authority only extended to data that’s stored within its territorial boundaries, so the U.S.-issued warrant was rendered useless in Ireland. Microsoft won in the Second Circuit, but there were still many gray areas that demanded updates to the statute to reflect the realities of the modern digital age.

This makes it important to have an in-depth understanding of what’s on offer before committing to a cloud service provider. In this article, we’ll explore some of the world’s most privacy-friendly countries that by extension make great locations to store sensitive data.

Right off the bat, you can bet that two superpowers didn’t make this list. The U.S. didn’t make the list because of continued NSA surveillance and spying ISPs, and neither did the People’s Republic of China, the planet’s second-largest economy.

The privacy and security landscape isn’t all hopeless because of initiatives like GDPR that came into effect last May. In fact, Europe provides a much better environment to secure your data, but it’s not without its faults.

So who has the best cloud privacy laws?

As we explore the list below, you’ll notice that all the countries listed are in Europe, but none are members of the European Union (EU). This is because while the EU boasts excellent privacy laws, these can be easily circumvented when the word “terrorism” is added into the mix.

1. Switzerland

Yes, we’re based in Switzerland, but that isn’t the reason for adding this sovereign European state to this list. Switzerland made it on to this list because historically the country has always been known for some of the strongest privacy laws in the world, and they continue to maintain this approach in a cloud environment.

Article 13 of the Swiss constitution guarantees the privacy of citizens. This along with two federal laws that are supplemented by other laws on the canton level also ensures the protection of both personal and enterprise data (even if the business is located outside its borders).

When your data is stored with a Swiss cloud service provider, you canrest assured that this information will be robustly protected by the country’s laws and the cloud company’s own privacy policies and security protocols. As a result, all this data will be as safe as it can ever be from commercial and state-sponsored snooping.

2. Iceland

This Nordic island nation is well known for its progressive legislation and strict data privacy laws. Not only are these rules and regulations designed to protect the nation’s 300,000 citizens, but also the press and political activists.

This means that Iceland’s Data Protection Act took extra steps to protect both journalists and whistleblowers. In other words, while Iceland adopted the Eurozone’s privacy legislation, they took it a step further and eliminated more draconian rules that covered the maintenance of data.

The Data Protection Authority, an Icelandic privacy watchdog also regularly audits the data policies of cloud service providers and the government to ensure that security and privacy protocols are up to date.

3. Norway

Scandinavian countries generally have good data privacy laws, but if you compare them, Norway will surpass all others. For example, Norway’s Personal Data Act protects the received and stored data by Norwegian authorities, but also citizens from the entertainment industry’s war on copyright infringement.

Norway also has an interest in ensuring that your data withstands the test of time. The country which is already the home of the Global Seed Vault (which is essentially a frozen ark with 1.5 million seeds) was set up to avoid extinction, and it wants to take the same approach with your valuable data.

With the World Arctic Archive, Norway hopes to store data in a disused mine in a mountain on the island of Svalbard. So if we encounter a doomsday scenario sometime in the future, you can trust that your data will survive any potential catastrophic event. In fact, experts believe that your data will last as long as a thousand years when properly secured down that mine.

The three counties listed above are leading this space when it comes to cloud privacy. So if you’re concerned about your customer data, it might be a good idea to look beyond your own borders to enjoy more privacy and data protection.

However, this doesn’t mean that other countries around the globe don’t respect data privacy. Instead, it just means that these three nations have gone the extra mile to better protect your private data (that’s stored in the cloud).

To learn more about cloud privacy and the best approach to enterprise data protection, click HERE to get in touch with one of our in-house experts.