The European Union’s (EU) Data Protection Directive spells out the minimum privacy and security standards to which companies must adhere to qualify for approval to move both employee and customer data outside Europe from the 28 countries within the EU. These data protection standards are considered to be the toughest in the world for commercial entities. Certification for the Data Protection Directive is granted by agencies within each EU country. First Data, which supports 300,000 merchants in the EU, has become the first U.S.-based company to receive certification for its Binding Corpor...