What You Need to Know to Get Started with Privacy Shield Certification

European privacy laws are considerably more stringent than those in the U.S., and the certification under the Privacy Shield is critical for businesses that want to avoid inquiries and fines in their overseas outposts. The best practices your company follows on American soil simply are not enough in the EU. American companies may regard Social Security numbers and credit card numbers as sensitive data, but in the EU, even IP addresses and geographic location data collected on phones are protected personal data. Checkout clerks in Europe do not ask for customers' phone numbers and employers cannot read workers' email. It's a different universe for privacy rights.

The EU's suspicion of data sharing is rooted in 20th century history, and it's not a good story. Whereas Americans don't give a second thought to sharing personal data in return for coupons and discounts, Europeans haven't forgotten that one of the first acts of the Nazi government was to go through the government's files on citizens and use the information to target many innocents simply based upon their political beliefs, religion or lifestyle choices. A few decades later, the Soviet-inspired Eastern Bloc elevated surveillance of ordinary citizens to a frightening new level, monitoring everything from library use to private conversations.