EU-US Privacy Shield failed to protect data of EU citizens, court rules
What you need to know
- An EU court has dealt a blow to the EU-US Data Privacy Shield.
- It has ruled that it failed to protect the data of EU citizens.
- It could have consequences regarding data sharing between the EU and the US.
The European Court of Justice has today ruled that the EU-US Data Privacy shield has failed to protect the privacy and data of EU citizens.
In a ruling today the court stated:
#ECJ: the Decision on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-US Data Protection Shield is invalidated, but @EU_Commission Decision on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to processors established in third countries is valid #Facebook #Schrems pic.twitter.com/BgxGAvuq3T#ECJ: the Decision on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-US Data Protection Shield is invalidated, but @EU_Commission Decision on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to processors established in third countries is valid #Facebook #Schrems pic.twitter.com/BgxGAvuq3T— EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) July 16, 2020July 16, 2020
The privacy shield is used by 5378 organizations to transfer data between the EU and the US, ideally, in line with EU data protection measures. From the program's website:
Now, in a landmark ruling, the EU's top court has ruled that the Privacy Shield agreement did not in fact limit access to data and protect privacy "in a way that satisfies requirements that are essentially equivalent to those required under EU law."
As noted by Reuters:
However, companies will still be able to access data using SCCs, standard contractual clauses set up on an individual basis by companies, as long as they sufficiently protect data in line with GDPR.
The case was led by Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist who filed a complaint against Facebook over the transfer of his data to the US. In response to the ruling Max stated:
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U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the Department of Commerce was "deeply disappointed" with the decision, and that it was studying the decision to "fully understand its practical impacts." CEO of The Software Alliance Victoria Espinel said:
As FT notes, the ruling will likely also have ramifications for the UK following the end of the Brexit-transition period at the end of this year.
You can read the full judgment here.
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