Washington/Brussels: President of the United States Joe Biden On Friday it signed an executive order to implement the EU-United States Data Transfer Framework announced in March that adopts new US intelligence privacy safeguards.
The deal seeks to end the limp in which thousands of companies found themselves after Europe’s top court rejected two previous agreements over concerns about US surveillance.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters that the executive order is “the culmination of our joint effort to restore trust and stability in transatlantic data flows” and will “ensure the confidentiality of EU personal data.”
The framework addresses the concerns of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which in July 2020 removed the former EU-US Privacy Shield framework as a valid data transfer mechanism under EU law.
European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said he was “quite confident” there would be a new legal challenge, but he was confident the settlement met the demands of the court.
“There’s a real improvement we have relative to Privacy Shield….it’s completely different,” he told Reuters in an interview. “Maybe the third attempt would be good.”
white House Said “transatlantic data flows are critical to enabling the $7.1 trillion EU-US economic relationship” and the framework will “restore an important legal basis for transatlantic data flows.”
US Chamber of Commerce and Microsoft The executive welcomed the order, but digital rights activist group Access Now and the European consumer organization BEUC said it did not appear that people’s rights were being adequately protected.
The White House said Biden’s order strengthened current “privacy and civil liberties safeguards” for US intelligence gathering and created an independent, binding multi-layer redressal mechanism for individuals who believe their personal The data was collected illegally by US intelligence agencies.
Reynders said a complicated approval process would take about six months to complete, noting that the previous system had only redressed an ombudsman inside the US administration, which was overruled by an EU court.
Biden’s order adopts new safeguards on US intelligence-gathering activities, requiring them to do only what is necessary and proportionate, and creates a two-step deterrence system — the first one under an intelligence agency watchdog. Then bind the agencies to a court with independent judges, whose decisions will be made.
Biden and President of the European Commission Ursula von der In March Leyen said the provisional agreement offered stronger legal protection and addressed the concerns of the EU court.
Raimondo will on Friday transmit a series of letters to the European Union from US agencies “outlining the operation and enforcement of the EU-US data privacy framework” that will “form the basis for the European Commission’s evaluation in a new adequacy decision,” he said. Told. ,
Under the order, the Civil Liberties Protection Officer (CLPO) in the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence will investigate the complaints and make a decision.
The US Department of Justice is establishing a Data Protection Review Court to independently review CLPO’s decisions. Judges with experience in data privacy and national security will be appointed from outside the US government.
European privacy activists have threatened to challenge the framework if they do not think it adequately protects privacy. Austrian Max Schrems, whose legal challenges have brought down the previous two EU-US data flow systems, said he still needed to analyze the package.
“Prima facie it seems that the main issues have not been resolved and it will come back to the CJEU (EU Court) sooner or later,” he said.
The deal seeks to end the limp in which thousands of companies found themselves after Europe’s top court rejected two previous agreements over concerns about US surveillance.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters that the executive order is “the culmination of our joint effort to restore trust and stability in transatlantic data flows” and will “ensure the confidentiality of EU personal data.”
The framework addresses the concerns of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which in July 2020 removed the former EU-US Privacy Shield framework as a valid data transfer mechanism under EU law.
European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said he was “quite confident” there would be a new legal challenge, but he was confident the settlement met the demands of the court.
“There’s a real improvement we have relative to Privacy Shield….it’s completely different,” he told Reuters in an interview. “Maybe the third attempt would be good.”
white House Said “transatlantic data flows are critical to enabling the $7.1 trillion EU-US economic relationship” and the framework will “restore an important legal basis for transatlantic data flows.”
US Chamber of Commerce and Microsoft The executive welcomed the order, but digital rights activist group Access Now and the European consumer organization BEUC said it did not appear that people’s rights were being adequately protected.
The White House said Biden’s order strengthened current “privacy and civil liberties safeguards” for US intelligence gathering and created an independent, binding multi-layer redressal mechanism for individuals who believe their personal The data was collected illegally by US intelligence agencies.
Reynders said a complicated approval process would take about six months to complete, noting that the previous system had only redressed an ombudsman inside the US administration, which was overruled by an EU court.
Biden’s order adopts new safeguards on US intelligence-gathering activities, requiring them to do only what is necessary and proportionate, and creates a two-step deterrence system — the first one under an intelligence agency watchdog. Then bind the agencies to a court with independent judges, whose decisions will be made.
Biden and President of the European Commission Ursula von der In March Leyen said the provisional agreement offered stronger legal protection and addressed the concerns of the EU court.
Raimondo will on Friday transmit a series of letters to the European Union from US agencies “outlining the operation and enforcement of the EU-US data privacy framework” that will “form the basis for the European Commission’s evaluation in a new adequacy decision,” he said. Told. ,
Under the order, the Civil Liberties Protection Officer (CLPO) in the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence will investigate the complaints and make a decision.
The US Department of Justice is establishing a Data Protection Review Court to independently review CLPO’s decisions. Judges with experience in data privacy and national security will be appointed from outside the US government.
European privacy activists have threatened to challenge the framework if they do not think it adequately protects privacy. Austrian Max Schrems, whose legal challenges have brought down the previous two EU-US data flow systems, said he still needed to analyze the package.
“Prima facie it seems that the main issues have not been resolved and it will come back to the CJEU (EU Court) sooner or later,” he said.