EU And US Announce New Privacy Shield For International Data Transfers

Introduction

On Tuesday 2 February 2016, the EU Commission and US Department of Commence announced that they had reached "political agreement" on a new privacy framework for transfers of personal data between Europe and the United States.

The new framework – the "EU–US Privacy Shield" – will replace Safe Harbor, which was invalidated by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in October 2015 in the Schrems decision amid allegations of mass surveillance.

The details of Privacy Shield are not yet publicly available. The European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) will also want to pour over the details of the new framework before giving their approval. As a result, uncertainty regarding transatlantic data transfers is likely to remain for a few more months. Still, this week's announcement is an important development in the future of EU–US data transfers.