EU considering deadline for Privacy Shield compliance by United States

Members of the Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament called on the European Commission to suspend the EU-US Privacy Shield if the United States does not comply with the agreement by September 1st.

They claimed that the safe harbor agreement in its current form did not provide an adequate amount of data protection for Europeans because both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica are still certified by the framework despite the revelations with regard to data sharing this year. The Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) called on the United States to act without delay and increase monitoring. The United States also has not followed up with other promises under President Trump’s administration, including failing to set up a permanent ombudsman at the state department to field EU citizen complaints with respect to their personal data.

What is the Privacy Shield? It is a self-certifying framework that allows US tech firms to transfer European data to the United States based on respect for European privacy laws. It was established in July 2016 in negoiations between the EU Commission and the United States after the Safe Harbor framework was invalidated by the Court of Justice of the European Union for offering an inadequate level of data protection.

The Privacy Shield is expected to pay a lesser role in data protection now that the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) is in effect. On the eve of the GDPR, the European data protection supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli told the EUobserver that the GDPR would subject companies to a higher set of standards and as a result, the Privacy Shield would become less relevant.

Nevertheless, the resolution to recommend the September deadline was passed by the Civil Liberties Committee by 29 votes to 25 with three abstentions. The full parliament is expected to vote on the measure in July.

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On Privacy Shield:

EC Report for Second Annual Privacy Shield Review Finds Adequate Protection of Privacy
EU and US Meet for Second Annual Privacy Shield Review
US Affirms Full Compliance with Privacy Shield Obligations
European Parliament Calls for Suspension of Privacy Shield in September