International data transfers arise when personal data is sent, accessed or made available outside the UK. This includes using overseas cloud providers, support teams, group companies or software platforms. The assessment should cover the destination country, the recipient, the data involved and the purpose of the transfer, rather than focusing only on where the supplier is incorporated.
First identify whether the destination benefits from UK adequacy regulations. If it does not, select an appropriate safeguard, usually the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or another permitted mechanism. Contractual wording alone is not enough. Record the parties, transfer details, security measures, onward transfers, deletion arrangements and the process for handling government access requests. Explore further guidance on international transfers.
A transfer risk assessment should examine the laws and practices of the destination country, including public authority access, available legal remedies and the recipient’s technical and organisational safeguards. Consider encryption, access controls, pseudonymisation, data minimisation, retention periods and the recipient’s ability to challenge inappropriate disclosure. Document the reasoning, the safeguards selected and any additional measures required. Revisit the assessment when the data, supplier, destination or relevant law changes.
Keep an inventory of international transfers and link each entry to its contract, transfer mechanism, risk assessment and privacy notice. Procurement and security teams should involve the data protection lead before approving a new overseas supplier. The organisation should also check onward transfers, ensure the UK GDPR transparency information remains accurate and review whether the arrangement still reflects actual data flows. This article is part of the reference collection published by Harper James.