Businesses should be wary of hosting their data inside the European Union (EU). That’s the message from a new international data privacy report from Swiss hosting company Artmotion. The report, which combines independent data from the United Nations, Transparency International and several leading privacy groups, highlights that of 28 nations making up the EU, only eight are considered truly secure for data storage.
At the same time, European nations outside the EU such as Switzerland and Iceland ranked significantly higher on list, coming in first and third on a review of the 170 safest nations for data security.
Germany came in 17th on the list, while Britain ranked just 23rd for data safety, falling behind Qatar and South Korea.
Despite hosting nearly a third of the world’s data, numerous NSA privacy scandals placed the USA 38th on the list, falling behind Uruguay, Bahrain and Oman for overall data privacy. Some major Asian nations also rated badly for data privacy, with India – which recently became home to the world’s largest data centre - ranking 107th on the list. This places the country just behind Iran for overall data security.
Commenting at the launch of the new study, data privacy expert Mateo Meier said “More than ever, it is important for businesses and individuals to understand the impact that location can have on the privacy and security of their data.
“In the internet age, it’s easy to forget that every piece of information stored still requires a physical home, and that the geographic location of that home can have a serious impact on data privacy.”
“In support of this point, the Data Danger Zones report examines over 3.5 trillion IP addresses in 170 countries, providing one of the most comprehensive guides ever created for assessing data safety. As the findings highlight however, it’s clear that a lot of nations – including those in Europe – are not doing enough to protect privacy and individual’s data rights.”
