3.3.2 Interview methodology

3.3.2 Interview methodology The focus of the interview phase was to gain a better understanding of the local situation and practical operation of data location restrictions and/or barriers within the European Union. Following the collection of data on compliance obligation during the desk research and our results from the online questionnaires, these in-depth interviews represented a further step in the direction of collecting and analysing legal and non-legal barriers in Member States practices that hinder the free flow of data. On the basis of the survey responses and together with the results of our desk research, we were able to identify key issues for further detailed analysis. On the basis hereof, we selected a number of stakeholders, within the relevant sectors and in a selection of countries, to be interviewed in order to gain further information and insights on these barriers.

Our methodology consists of the following steps:

1) Selecting interviewees 2) Drafting interview questions 3) Contacting stakeholders and organising interviews 4) Holding interviews and reporting

Each step will be described below.

Selecting interviewees The Study Team has made a selection of interviewees taking into account the following two criteria:

 key issues raised during desk research and in the online surveys, which relate to key sectors where a concentration of barriers were identified during the desk research and surveys (e.g. financial, health, industry and public sectors), which are described in detail under section 2;  a balanced spread of countries, where the identified key issues and key sectors are represented

The Study team thus identified stakeholders in the financial and health sectors as well as representatives from industry (with a focus on the telecommunications sector, users and cloud service providers, and both SME’s and large companies) and the public sector. Subsequently, the study contacted stakeholders in the health sector, the financial sector, the industry sector and the public sector. Not all names or full details of the interviewees could be provided due to anonymisation requests.