ThePlanet Completes Safe Harbor

ThePlanet, the global hosting leader, today announced that it has successfully completed the U.S.-European Union (EU) Safe Harbor self-certification process.

Developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and modeled after the European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection, the Safe Harbor framework provides U.S. businesses guidelines for protecting personal data from Europe.

The Planet’s participation in Safe Harbor is voluntary, and provides assurances to customers that the company adheres to the same rigorous privacy guidelines established by the European Commission. In addition, The Planet’s customers can now benefit by avoiding interruptions during trans-Atlantic business dealings that are required to comply with European privacy legislation.

During the certification process, The Planet demonstrated compliance with the seven Safe Harbor principles. These include guidelines around maintaining transparent customer communications; ensuring security, privacy and integrity of customer data; and providing an open avenue for customers to contact the company with concerns.

The Safe Harbor certification joins the company’s previous completion of the Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70 (SAS 70) Type II audit, which ensures the company maintains rigorous controls and processes across operations, including its eight data centers, network and customer support.

“With the amount of data exchanged between businesses, there’s increasing concern about security of the information,” said Jim Picone, vice president of customer care. “For any business, a leak or loss of mission-critical data can be devastating. Our customers place their trust in us to safeguard their businesses, which is why we completed the Safe Harbor self-certification process. While protecting customer data has always been core to our business, we’re voluntarily participating in a program that holds us to the standards established by the European Commission’s Directive on Data Protection. This provides additional assurances to our customers and those who do business with partners around the world that their data is safe with The Planet.”