Hello and welcome to the Beyond Brexit podcast. I'm your host, Shalina Poffenberger. At the time that I'm speaking, we're in the final 30 working days of the Brexit transition period. The last and final round of trade negotiations is almost at an end and the moment for moving into a new way of training and working with the

EU is coming fast. While we have certainty in many aspects of Brexit, one very important

area where we're still awaiting an outcome is data protection and privacy. Regulation and supervisory

authorities across the regulatory spectrum will change from first January, and that includes GDPR. I'm joined

remotely today by Fidel McGood and Pauly Ralph, two directors in our data privacy practice. They're here

to talk about what organizations need to do now with these final days left before the end of transition,

to prepare for what is still an uncertain outcome,

data protection adequacy. I've spoken to many organizations that haven't focused on data

privacy in the context of their Brexit preparations, and they're now scrambling to do so,

although they're somewhat flying blind. So Fidelma, if I can start with you, why is GDPR a concern with Brexit?

And where do we stand now in terms of understanding what will change from the first of January?

And maybe let's talk too about what does adequacy mean in this context?

Thanks, Shalina, for that one.

A good place to start.

So the European Data Protection Law, the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, as many people

may be well used to hearing it, referred to as, actually restricts transfers of personal data

to countries outside the EU and EEA, they're known as

third countries, unless the transfer is covered by something called an adequacy decision,

an appropriate safeguard or an exception. Now, at the end of the transition period, the UK will actually become a third country.

And an adequacy decision basically means that the European Commission will determine that we have an adequate data protection law in place

when it comes to the handling of personal data on Europeans.

The challenge that we have and why people are slightly flying blind right now is that there's

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