back to article Brexit and data protection: A period of shock and reflection

What price the UK's secession from the European Union? “It's far too soon to tell,” has been the sober and much-repeated line of legal and privacy professionals following the United Kingdom's referendum which voiced public opinion to leave the European Union. Speaking to The Register this morning Andrew Joint, commercial …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Coat

    I guess the Continent is isolated again, then

    I always felt the result of this referendum was predictable.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I guess the Continent is isolated again, then

      Sir-Humphrey:

      Yes, and current policy. We had to break the whole thing up, so we had to get inside. We tried to break it up from the outside, but that wouldn't work. Now that we're inside we can make a complete pig's breakfast of the whole thing: set the Germans against the French, the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch. The Foreign Office is terribly pleased; it's just like old times.

  2. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    Well...

    I think from a personal / home user / SOHO perspective the view has to be to start thinking about tough encryption on as many forms of electronic communications as possible. Yes I agree with the article that to do business with the EU in the future we'll need to maintain privacy standards, but what about separate standards when dealing with the US for example? We've all seen Teresa Mays vision of the future, and the recent roughriding over personal privacies as demonstrated by the FBI and other court rulings - and neither fill me with any joy. Even less now that we will not necessarily in the future enjoy the protections we have enjoyed previously and up until now under the EU.

  3. Brenda McViking
    Pint

    The 7 stages of Brexit

    From the remainers perspective...

    SHOCK - Woah, WTF?! The polls and markets didn't see this coming...

    DENIAL - its not legally binding anyway, right?

    ANGER - FUCKING PENSIONERS! UNEDUCATED TWATS! NORTHERN RACISTS! FARAGE!!!

    BARGAINING - *signs petition for 2nd referendum on facebook*

    DEPRESSION - Fuck. I'm really stuck on this little island now...

    TESTING - *googles how to become an Irish citizen*

    ACCEPTANCE - It's Friday, that means it's beer o'clock!

  4. James 51

    You missed the step were the post office has someone standing at the door with copies of the forms to become an Irish citizen/get an Irish passport in Irish because they've run out of the ones in English. The website which comes first in google for getting an Irish passport/becoming a citizen was unavailable this morning. I'm guessing was effectively DDOSed by people looking for information.

    BTW is that German beer?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Damn, thats my first prediction gone before I had a chance to predict it !

      FWIW the others are:

      - UK to sign up to TTIP within 3 years (or when we leave the EU if that happens sooner),

      - Scotland to not get independence within the next 20 years

      - UK to ban dual citizenship (outside bet)

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    5 eyes will not be happy

    The UK was the spy networks path into Europe.

    European data just got a little bit safer.

    I thought about Ireland, then considered Portugal. Now I'm considering New Zealand... Not quite sure how that escalated...

    1. veti Silver badge

      Re: 5 eyes will not be happy

      You don't imagine 5 eyes will have less access to European data now, do you? If anything they'll be better off, with GCHQ relieved of the need to think about fig leaves.

      And you know New Zealand is another of the 5, right?

      Be warned, there's no clotted cream down here.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 5 eyes will not be happy

      @"European data just got a lot safer"....

      Exactly, and it starts immediately, because UK's ability to influence (i.e. undermine) the Privacy and Data Protection laws ends immediately. Nobody will bend to try to keep the UK in, knowing they're going.

      Want to sell your kit in EU? But Snoopers Charter means its backdoored, and that backdoor isn't compliant with EU jurisdictional limits or legal protections, so no chance. Take your Cloud Services with Theresa May backdoors and shove 'em, they can never be EU legal compliant because UK law is not compliant!

      EU Data Retention directive was pushed in by Blair during UK presidency of the EU. Blanket surveillance has already been ruled illegal, you cannot use "National Security" as cover for bulk surveillance. With UK leaving that can now be fixed. It doesn't matter that UK argues otherwise, they can simply wait till UK is gone if necessary.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: 5 eyes will not be happy

        "Theresa May backdoors"

        OMG! NURSE! Brain bleach! STAT!

    3. Jeffrey Nonken

      Re: 5 eyes will not be happy

      I've been thinking about Iceland, myself, but I'm also starting from the 'States. Don't know if that's relevant or not.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Theresa Stasi May was in the Pro-EU camp

    Theresa May was pro-EU, she cannot stay in power against the people. It shows you how much her Stasi has been interfering in British politics when BOTH the two main parties were both on the WRONG side of the people's choices. They clearly did not represent the people they claimed to represent. Theresa May is on the wrong side of the vote. She needs to go.

    They should have an election, rather than appoint their choice of stooge into power.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Theresa Stasi May was in the Pro-EU camp

      @AC

      "They should have an election, rather than appoint their choice of stooge into power."

      Yes, that's so funny, the UKIP/Leave EU anti-democratic thing. Theur supports will now have a PM that was never elected in to office and a whole new set of policies that weren't voted for too. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA .

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Theresa Stasi May was in the Pro-EU camp

        "Yes, that's so funny, the UKIP/Leave EU anti-democratic thing. Theur supports will now have a PM that was never elected in to office and a whole new set of policies that weren't voted for too"

        I think we're in agreement here, HA HA man, but since the new PM will be lame duck, from a party on the wrong side of the democratic vote, how many of them will vote with Stasi PM May? Knowing she's walking-electoral-taint? They might side with PM Boris, but most of them were in the pro-EU camp, so they won't exactly be strong supporters of him either.

        So this is a lame duck government at this point. There needs to be an election to clear out Cameron's lot, particularly his unelected toffs, the 'Baroness for Life' and the other unrepresentative ministers he chose.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Theresa Stasi May was in the Pro-EU camp

        "Yes, that's so funny, the UKIP/Leave EU anti-democratic thing. Theur supports will now have a PM that was never elected in to office and a whole new set of policies that weren't voted for too."

        You do know that Cameron was not elected as PM either, don't you?

        It may have escaped your attention in the deluge of US political campaigning the UK news is swamped with, but we don't elect our leaders. We elect our local MPs and they choose who the PM will be. Most of the time that's the current party leader, but there's no rules or laws which says that must be the case. In theory, the PM could well be an unelected person if the party leader doesn't win their seat and the party chooses to retain them as leader. For that matter, the winning party could specifically choose someone to be their new leader, and hence the PM, who never even stood as an MP. Of course, this is one of the Queens few remaining powers. She ultimately has the final choice in the matter and can choose anyone she likes. A little over 100 years ago was the last time a none-MP was PM.

        The likelihood is that whoever is the next PM will in fact be a currently sitting, elected MP, just as Cameron is.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Theresa Stasi May was in the Pro-EU camp

      " It shows you how much her Stasi has been interfering in British politics when BOTH the two main parties were both on the WRONG side of the people's choices."

      37% of the electorate voted to leave 35% voted to remain 27% did not vote. All of the major parties were behind remain a position which a little more than 1/3 of the population is against a little less than a1/3 is for and a little less than 1/3 did not express an opinion. So what? In the past there would have been a bigger disparity on capital punishment. Political parties are not pressure groups, they have to address a full spectrum of issues and if they are a major party they have to operate in the real world where they may actually get to form a government and trade offs and compromises need to be made. The economic realities made bremain overwhelmingly the choice of the political parties. It absolutely should be the case that options for which the overwhelming expert consensus is extremely negative are not supported by any political party.

    3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Theresa Stasi May was in the Pro-EU camp

      "Theresa May was pro-EU"

      Only to the minimal extent she needed to stay on what she probably assumed would be the winning side. She doesn't seem to have been very pro-EU in anything that affected her departmental brief.

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