EU formally approves Uruguay’s adequacy

The European Commission issued its decision on 21 August on Uruguay’s adequacy for transfers of personal data from the European Union (Official Journal L 227, 23/08/2012).

The Commission says that the legal standards for the protection of personal data in Uruguay are largely based on the standards set out in the EU Data Protection Directive, and data protection provisions are also contained in a number of special acts. In addition, the Act on the Protection of Personal Data and the "Habeas Data" Act is further complemented by Decree No 414/009 of 2009, which clarifies several aspects of the law.

It has taken the European Commission years to come to this conclusion. The Commission has previously announced adequacy decisions on Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Canada, the Faeroe Islands, Guernsey, Israel, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Switzerland, the US Safe Harbor Privacy Principles and the agreement on Transfer of Air Passenger Name Record Data to the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.

See the Commission’s decision on Uruguay.

The list of adequate countries is here.