The European Commission today issued a Communication summarising the actions taken to restore trust in transatlantic data flows since the 2013 surveillance revelations.
The European Commission has finalised the reform of EU Data protection rules, which apply to all companies providing services on the EU market. The Commission negotiated the EU-U.S. Umbrella Agreement ensuring high data protection standards for data transfers across the Atlantic for law enforcement purposes. The Commission achieved a renewed sound framework for commercial data exchange: the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.
Today, the Commission also published a draft “adequacy decision” as well as the texts that will constitute the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. This includes the Privacy Shield Principles companies have to abide by. Moreover, the Commission makes public the U.S. Government’s written commitments on the enforcement of the arrangement.
The written commitments will be published in the U.S. Federal Register and include assurance on the safeguards and limitations concerning public authorities’ access to data.
The Commission statement and related information can be found here.