The European Commission today gave final approval to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. This is the latest step in a long-standing effort to harmonize the two laws and allow data transfers across borders. The same legal issues that caused the previous contract to the founders.
The committee’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said ratification of the framework should provide “legal certainty” for transatlantic initiatives and called the commitment “unprecedented”.
“Today, we take important steps to reaffirm our shared values, while providing citizens with confidence that their data is safe and deepening economic ties between the EU and the United States,” she said in a statement. “It shows that the most complex problems can be solved through collaboration.”
Chief among the criticisms of the previous US-EU data transfer agreement is the role of the US intelligence community in mass surveillance, with one prominent critic saying the latest version does not substantially restrict US spy agencies’ access to EU citizen data.
Data privacy agreements will face new legal challenges
“[The t]The European Commission’s third attempt to achieve stable agreement on EU-US data transfers [European] Court decision within months” From a statement from the European Digital Rights Center. The group, which also calls itself “NOYB” (or “Not Your Thing”), was founded in 2017 by Max Schrems, an Austrian lawyer who has been outspoken in criticizing US data protection rules and mass surveillance. His dissatisfaction was at the heart of the previous sinking. evacuation and Privacy Shield Program.
Initial attempts to reach a data-sharing agreement with the United States were thwarted as a result of a court case by the ECJ, lacking truly independent oversight and opposing the US Department of Justice to end mass surveillance.