07/05/2009

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has permitted two firms to transfer personal details outside the UK.

Accenture and Atmel have been authorised to send personal information within their corporate groups to entities outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).

This will allow the firms to be able to share data within their multi-national organisational structure.

Atmel has been given the right to transfer information related to its employees, while Accenture has received additional authorisation to send client-related data outside the EEA.

Deputy information commissioner David Smith said: 'Accenture and Atmel should be commended for their commitment to the concept of binding corporate rules and their respect for the privacy of individuals.

'The ICO welcomes approaches from multi-national organisations that need to share personal information within their own group but outside Europe and who want to use binding corporate rules to do that. Using binding corporate rules is a responsible approach to handling people’s personal information.'