Blog Image
Profile Image Verifile
March 29 2016

EU-US Privacy Shield replacing Safe Harbor

The European Commission has announced an agreement with the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) to replace the invalidated Safe Harbor agreement on transatlantic data flows with a new EU-U.S. "Privacy Shield."
 
The Privacy Shield aims to address the requirements set out by the European Court of Justice in its Oct. 6, 2015 ruling by imposing stronger obligations on companies, providing stronger monitoring and enforcement by the DOC and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and making commitments regarding access to information on the part of public authorities.
 
In announcing the agreement, Vice-President Ansip noted his belief that the Privacy Shield will benefit both European businesses and citizens, and will prove to be a "much better" solution for transatlantic data flows.
 
Both Commissioner Jourova and Vice-President Ansip expressed their belief that the new Privacy Shield solution would be able to withstand future challenges but that, as the agreement provides for a "living" scheme, the practical work behind the arrangement was just beginning.