British regulator: GDPR will continue to apply during Brexit transition

The European privacy law is still in effect in the United Kingdom all year round. As long as the country is in the transition phase of the EU’s exit, companies must comply with the privacy rules. It is not known what will happen to the regulations after 2020.

That writes the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK privacy regulator. The ICO points to the transition period that the United Kingdom will enter on Friday. During that period, the country can agree on Brexit rules with the rest of the EU. The transition period will run until December 31 of this year. “During this period, it will be business as usual for data protection,” the regulator writes. This means that companies that process data still have to comply with the rules imposed from Europe, such as asking for permission.

It is not clear, like many other Brexit matters, which privacy legislation will apply in the country from 2021. “It is not yet known what the data protection landscape will look like at the end of the transition period,” writes the ICO. “We recognize that companies have concerns about the processing of personal data in the future,” is all the regulator added. The ICO says it will continue to monitor the situation closely and update its guidelines as needed.