data-storage legislature
Using U.S. hosting service from Europe
<p>I was reading about data transfer implications for those of us who live in EU. Apparently transferring any user's personal info outside of EU is not strictly legal, unless you go through some paperwork which I definitely will not.</p>

<p>So the questions is, does this mean that it's illegal to host your website in USA if you're located in EU? My website stores personal info like e-mail address, password and nickname (this info is stored on a server outside of EU). Does this fall under personal data transfer? Or did I misunderstand the whole thing?</p>

<p>Perhaps someone with experience with the web legalities could help me out better understand this.</p>

<p>I'm not a lawyer and lots has been done about this during the first part of this year. Your version of events (EU data outside EU) is a little behind the curve. An agreement was put in place, given a new name which I cannot remember, but putting the "Safe Harbour" agreement that was previously law, to rest.</p>

<p>My understanding is where you store the data is less important when compared to how you store the data.  This is the prime concern (hacks and unauthorised use of the data).</p>

<p>Sending plain text over the wire between your client device and the server is likely to be frowned upon if the data is hacked and the law catches up with you.</p>
