EU agrees to transfer of Europeans’ personal data to US servers

RT

 

The EU has accepted a new version of the so-called Private Shield law that would allow US companies to transfer Europeans’ private data to servers across the ocean. The EU struck down the previously-reached agreement over US surveillance concerns. 

 

"Today member states have given their strong support to the EU-US Privacy Shield, the renewed safe framework for transatlantic data flows," Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip and Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova announced in a statement saying that the agreement ensures “a high level of protection for individuals and legal certainty for business.”

The majority of EU members voted in support of the Privacy Shield pact with the US that had been designed to replace its predecessor, the Safe Harbor system, which the highest EU court ruled “invalid” in October 2015 following Edward Snowden’s revelations about mass US surveillance.

"It [the Privacy Shield] is fundamentally different from the old Safe Harbour: It imposes clear and strong obligations on companies handling the data and makes sure that these rules are followed and enforced in practice," Ansip and Jourova said.


However, several countries, including Austria, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Croatia abstained amid privacy concerns.

The newly-adopted agreement will come into force starting Tuesday.

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