New deal to protect EU personal data in US flawed

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The European Commission(EC) is negotiating an agreement with the US the "Privacy Shield" designed to protect personal data of EU citizens in the US. Privacy Shield will replace "Safe Harbour" which was struck down by the European Court of Justice last October because it did not sufficiently protect citizens data protection rights. The US has no data protection rights such as are in the EU where citizens have rights of access, to erasure, and processing of their data among other rights.

However the European Consumer Organization (BEUC) argues that Privacy Shield also fails to protect EU citizens' data when it is sent to the US. They claim that the limits imposed on US tech companies that can profit from the data,  fall short of standards set in the EU data protection law. Monique Goyens, Director General of the BEUC said:  “It is disappointing that the EU is showing so little appetite for defending its pioneering data protection rules. Consumers usually do not know or control where companies are sending their personal data. Their privacy rights should not be weakened just because data is transferred to the US or elsewhere." 

Goyens said that the EC should have listened more to data protection groups and advocates for privacy. Instead they gave in to pressure from the tech industry and the US government. Goyens complained that the agreement was "cracked beyond repair". She said that the agreement is not likely to survive scrutiny by the European Court of Justice. Goyens said that a fundamental problem is "the US side of the shield is made of clay, not iron".

The data involved can refer to any transaction, web purchases, cars, or clothing, involving any EU citizen whose data is held on US servers, but also includes Internet and other communications. The Safe Harbour agreement was shut down in part on the basis of a case in which the revelations of Edward Snowden about NSA spying were involved.

​ However, Vera Jourova of the European Commissioner for Justic, Consumers and Gender Equality said of the deal: "Strong data protection obligations will be more robustly enforced by US authorities. Secondly, reassurance from the US Government that any access to personal data for law enforcement or national security purposes is limited to what is necessary and proportionate, building on the important intelligence reforms by President Obama. Thirdly, easier redress possibilities for European in case of complaints about how their data is handled." Many critics disagree and complain that the agreement was slanted toward the rights of tech corporations and the government.

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