In what is being termed a robust measure to ensure the safety of EU citizens’ data when transferred across the Atlantic by firms such as Facebook, Apple and Google, Europe and the US have reached a new deal over data sharing.
Companies would be able to transfer and process EU citizens’ data in the US given certain privacy guarantees under the new EU-US privacy shield.
In October, the original data-sharing safe harbour agreement from 2000 used by 4,500 companies was struck down by the European court of justice. Following the Snowden revelations of mass US government surveillance, legal action was taken by an Austrian privacy campaigner, the safe harbour agreement was scrapped.
“We have agreed with our US partners a new framework that will ensure the right checks and balances for our citizens,” said Andrus Ansip, European commissioner for the digital single market.
“For the first time ever, the US has given the EU binding assurances that the access of public authorities for national security purposes will be subject to clear limitations, safeguards and oversight mechanisms,” said Vera Jourova, European commissioner for justice.
The deal offered “robust and significant improvements” as well as “detailed assurances” on safeguards and limitations of US surveillance programs for the first time and is greatly improved over the original 2000 agreement, he said.
An annual joint review of the data-sharing agreement and a new US official responsible for following up EU data protection complaints would form part of the EU-US privacy shield.
Along with promises of privacy protections equivalent to those afforded to the data of EU citizens while in the EU, the new deal would effectively allow the easy transfer of data from the EU to the US. The EU citizens were worried about their data privacy after the invalidation of the original 2000 deal. This would have created insecurity with the individual data protection authorities in each of the 28 member states. The after effects would have potentially proved to be expensive for US technology companies like Microsoft, Facebook and Google.
In order to ensure that they are still following the deal’s rules, which are supposed to ensure that companies based in US apply data protection standards akin to those found in the EU, companies who employ the new agreement will face regular compliance checks from the US Department of Commerce.
Those who were keen to see that businesses wishing to operate in the EU have a clear and cost effective way of transferring data without requiring potentially hundreds of individual contracts with data controllers and processors have however expressed reservations about the new deal.
One such reservation was expressed by Antony Walker, deputy chief executive of techUK, which represents over 900 companies from the UK technology industry.
“The fact that EU and US negotiators have worked day and night for several months to secure this agreement reflects how important transatlantic data flows are to the global digital economy,” Walker said.
“A new safe harbour-style agreement is very welcome, however, I doubt it will be anything more than a stop-gap measure. It is also unlikely to quell disquiet in the tech community by restoring long term confidence in the transatlantic flow of data,” said Mike Weston, chief executive of data science consultancy Profusion.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
Companies would be able to transfer and process EU citizens’ data in the US given certain privacy guarantees under the new EU-US privacy shield.
In October, the original data-sharing safe harbour agreement from 2000 used by 4,500 companies was struck down by the European court of justice. Following the Snowden revelations of mass US government surveillance, legal action was taken by an Austrian privacy campaigner, the safe harbour agreement was scrapped.
“We have agreed with our US partners a new framework that will ensure the right checks and balances for our citizens,” said Andrus Ansip, European commissioner for the digital single market.
“For the first time ever, the US has given the EU binding assurances that the access of public authorities for national security purposes will be subject to clear limitations, safeguards and oversight mechanisms,” said Vera Jourova, European commissioner for justice.
The deal offered “robust and significant improvements” as well as “detailed assurances” on safeguards and limitations of US surveillance programs for the first time and is greatly improved over the original 2000 agreement, he said.
An annual joint review of the data-sharing agreement and a new US official responsible for following up EU data protection complaints would form part of the EU-US privacy shield.
Along with promises of privacy protections equivalent to those afforded to the data of EU citizens while in the EU, the new deal would effectively allow the easy transfer of data from the EU to the US. The EU citizens were worried about their data privacy after the invalidation of the original 2000 deal. This would have created insecurity with the individual data protection authorities in each of the 28 member states. The after effects would have potentially proved to be expensive for US technology companies like Microsoft, Facebook and Google.
In order to ensure that they are still following the deal’s rules, which are supposed to ensure that companies based in US apply data protection standards akin to those found in the EU, companies who employ the new agreement will face regular compliance checks from the US Department of Commerce.
Those who were keen to see that businesses wishing to operate in the EU have a clear and cost effective way of transferring data without requiring potentially hundreds of individual contracts with data controllers and processors have however expressed reservations about the new deal.
One such reservation was expressed by Antony Walker, deputy chief executive of techUK, which represents over 900 companies from the UK technology industry.
“The fact that EU and US negotiators have worked day and night for several months to secure this agreement reflects how important transatlantic data flows are to the global digital economy,” Walker said.
“A new safe harbour-style agreement is very welcome, however, I doubt it will be anything more than a stop-gap measure. It is also unlikely to quell disquiet in the tech community by restoring long term confidence in the transatlantic flow of data,” said Mike Weston, chief executive of data science consultancy Profusion.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
