Zettabox Launches Service To Satisfy EU Safe Habour Needs

Zettabox has launched its Zettabox Euro Harbor service, geared towards helping US companies comply with the forthcoming Safe Harbour data storage rules.

The launch comes amid the collapse of the 15-year-old Safe Harbour data-sharing agreement between the United States and Europe, as well as Europe’s upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations.

Compliance Headache

Zettabox’s launch of the Zettabox Euro Harbor service is geared towards resolving a potentially serious headache for any American company operating or gathering data in Europe.

This is because the United States is no longer regarded (at least by European officials) as a “safe harbour” for any personal data from Europe.

In October Europe’s high court, the European Union Court of Justice (CJEU), stunned the United States when it ruled that the current Safe Harbour data-sharing agreement between the United States and Europe was invalid in light of the mass spying allegations by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

That decision alarmed thousands of American businesses including Google and Facebook as they transfer vast volumes of data between the US and Europe on a daily basis. Even more alarming is these firms potentially face legal action beginning at the end of January 2016 over the matter.

The British data protection watchdog (the ICO) meanwhile has sought reassure British firms in the interim, and now the EC has published its own guidelines for firms, but it has effectively warned that the current Safe Harbour deal is dead and buried, and should not be used.

Zettabox has previously told TechweekEurope that many European firms were simply unaware that any US-based firm (AWS, Microsoft, Google, Facebook etc) cannot guarantee the privacy of European citizens’ data, as American businesses are legally obliged to open its servers to the US intelligence services when requested, even if that server is located outside of the United States, like in the UK or Ireland.

A new Safe Habour agreement is reportedly close to being agreed, but US firms also have to contend with the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations.

This European legislation will impose fines of between 2 and 5 percent of worldwide revenues on companies that fail to meet the new stringent regulations.

Zettabox Euro Harbour

All of this means that US companies operating in Europe face potentially serious problems as to where they store their cloud data.

Against this backdrop, Euro Harbour from Zettabox will help these American firms meet the new requirements by keeping their clients’ data in the EU in one of its 10 European data centres.

The new service is available to all US-domiciled telecoms operators, ISPs, system integrators and others who act as “data controllers” handling private consumer data in Europe, said Zettabox.

Zettabox’s Euro Harbor service therefore includes a fully European cloud storage, backup and collaboration solution recognised by the European Commission. It also offers a revenue-sharing plan that “helps non-EU domiciled data controllers drive new revenues with the Zettabox tool, offering US customers a fully European platform.”

Essentially, Zettabox will partner with American firms that will be able to route Europeans’ data to Zettabox servers in Europe. As Zettabox is based in Europe, the US intelligence services cannot legally obtain access to these servers.

“The burden of complying with EU data privacy regulations while also complying with US regulations is a no-win situation for companies,” said James Kinsella, Zettabox Founder. “Zettabox Euro Harbor is designed to make compliance with EU law easier for US companies.”

Following the NSA spying revelations. Where do you store your data?