On Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2015, Berlin Data Protection Commissioner
Dr. Alexander Dix, speaking at the European Data Protection
Conference in Berlin, made a number of important announcements
regarding the EU/U.S. Safe Harbor Program and U.S. cloud services
provided in the EU. These announcements may have significant
negative effects on U.S. companies doing business and offering such
services in Germany.
Background
The EU/U.S. Safe Harbor Program is a popular tool for companies
that wish to transfer personal data between the EU and the U.S. The
EU Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce negotiated the
Safe Harbor in 1999/2000 in order to allow for EU-to-U.S. data
flows subject to strict commitments by recipient entities regarding
data privacy and security. For years, the Safe Harbor Program has
been criticized by European supervisory authorities for an alleged
lack of enforcement, and currently, negotiations on a revision to
the Safe Harbor Program are pending.
