SCENARIO
Please use the following to answer the next question:
ProStorage is a multinational cloud storage provider headquartered in the Netherlands. Its CEO. Ruth Brown, has developed a two-pronged strategy for growth: 1) expand ProStorage s global customer base and 2) increase ProStorage's sales force by efficiently onboarding effective teams. Enacting this strategy has recently been complicated by Ruth's health condition, which has limited her working hours, as well as her ability to travel to meet potential customers. ProStorage's Human Resources department and Ruth's Chief of Staff now work together to manage her schedule and ensure that she is able to make all her medical appointments The latter has become especially crucial after Ruth's last trip to India, where she suffered a medical emergency and was hospitalized m New Delhi Unable to reach Ruths family, the hospital reached out to ProStorage and was able to connect with her Chief of Staff, who in coordination with Mary, the head of HR. provided information to the doctors based on accommodate on requests Ruth made when she started a: ProStorage
In support of Ruth's strategic goals of hiring more sales representatives, the Human
Resources team is focused on improving its processes to ensure that new
employees are sourced, interviewed, hired, and onboarded efficiently. To help with
this, Mary identified two vendors, HRYourWay, a German based company, and
InstaHR, an Australian based company. She decided to have both vendors go
through ProStorage's vendor risk review process so she can work with Ruth to
make the final decision. As part of the review process, Jackie, who is responsible
for maintaining ProStorage's privacy program (including maintaining controller
BCRs and conducting vendor risk assessments), reviewed both vendors but
completed a transfer impact assessment only for InstaHR. After her review of both
boasted a more established privacy program and provided third-party attestations,
whereas HRYourWay was a small vendor with minimal data protection operations.
Thus, she recommended InstaHR.
ProStorage's marketing team also worked to meet the strategic goals of the
company by focusing on industries where it needed to grow its market share. To
help with this, the team selected as a partner UpFinance, a US based company
with deep connections to financial industry customers. During ProStorage's
diligence process, Jackie from the privacy team noted in the transfer impact
assessment that UpFinance implements several data protection measures
including end-to-end encryption, with encryption keys held by the customer.
Notably, UpFinance has not received any government requests in its 7 years of
business. Still, Jackie recommended that the contract require UpFinance to notify
ProStorage if it receives a government request for personal data UpFinance
processes on its behalf prior to disclosing such data.
What transfer mechanism did ProStorage most likely rely on to transfer Ruth's
medical information to the hospital?
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Correct Answer:
B
According to the GDPR, one of the legal bases for transferring personal data to a third country or an international organization is when the transfer is necessary for the protection of the vital interests of the data subject or of another person, where the data subject is physically or legally incapable of giving consent (Article 49(1)). This exception applies only in very limited and exceptional situations, such as life-threatening medical emergencies. In this scenario, ProStorage most likely relied on this legal basis to transfer Ruth's medical information to the hospital in India, where she suffered a medical emergency and was hospitalized. Ruth was presumably unable to give her consent due to her health condition, and the transfer of her medical information was necessary to protect her vital interests, such as her life or health. Therefore, this transfer mechanism was more appropriate than the other options, which either require consent or are not relevant to the situation.
