InfoBytes Blog
European Union Approves EU-U.S. Privacy Shield
On July 12, the European Union (EU) finalized and adopted the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield for transatlantic data flows. As previously covered in InfoBytes, on October 6, 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union declared in Shrems v. Data Protection Commissioner “invalid” a decision of the European Commission that the EU-U.S. Safe Harbor Framework provided adequate protection for personal data transferred from the EU to the U.S., thus requiring the EU and the U.S. to develop a new framework for transatlantic data transfers. The recently finalized EU-U.S. privacy shield is based on the following principles: (i) strong obligations on companies handling data, including requiring the Department of Commerce to regularly conduct updates and reviews of participating companies and tightening conditions for the onward transfers of data; (ii) clear safeguards and transparency obligations on U.S. government, assuring that “the access of public authorities for law enforcement and national security is subject to clear limitations, safeguards and oversight mechanisms”; (iii) effective protection of individual rights, including complaint-handling mechanisms and the designation of an Ombudsperson independent from U.S. intelligence services to handle redress possibility in the area of national security for EU citizens; and (iv) annual joint review mechanism to monitor the functioning of the Privacy Shield. On July 12, the Commission simultaneously released a Q&A, a Fact Sheet, the “Adequacy Decision,” which will enter into force immediately after Member States are notified, and Annexes.