Dropbox granted Privacy Shield certification

Dropbox has achieved Privacy Shield certification, meaning customers are protected when their data is transferred from the EU to the US.

Companies have been able to self-certify themselves since 1 August, committing to a set of privacy principles that make up the Privacy Shield certification.

"Dropbox is committed to protecting the privacy and security of customer data, which is why we welcomed the adoption of the new EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework providing another mechanism for the transfer of personal data from the European Economic Area (EEA) to the US," Philip Lacor, CP EMEA at Dropbox, said.

"We applied early to be certified under Privacy Shield and are delighted to announce that we have now received certification."

The European Commission has expressed its opinion that businesses planning to transfer data from the EU to the US using Privacy Shield must also stick to the EU's own data protection law requirements that apply to any company wanting the transfer data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).

"Protecting our customers’ privacy and keeping data secure is our highest priority," Lacor added. "In addition to offering technical measures like encrypting files in transit and at rest, we were also one of the first major cloud service providers to achieve the ISO 27018 certification, a global standard for cloud privacy and data protection."

"We will work hard to maintain our Privacy Shield commitments and look forward to the success of the program," Lacor finished. "We support the new framework as a means to protect individual privacy while enabling users and businesses to benefit from the free flow of data that is so critical to the global economy."

Microsoft was accredited in August, Google announced it had achieved the certification earlier this week and Amazon has said it has applied for it, but it's yet to be granted certification.