On 12 July 2016, the European Commission adopted the EU-U.S.
Privacy Shield. For most companies, the Privacy Shield shall, in
practice, be very similar to the previous framework, Safe Harbor,
and most of the Privacy Shield requirements follow the original
Safe Harbor rules. However, several principles have been developed
in more detail. Thus, companies transitioning from Safe Harbor to
Privacy Shield may need to take further steps to bring their
practices into compliance with the Privacy Shield.
In particular, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield imposes tougher
obligations on U.S. companies to protect European personal data.
This reflects the requirements of the European Court of Justice,
which ruled the previous Safe Harbor framework invalid. The Privacy
Shield requires the U.S. to monitor and enforce more robustly, and
cooperate more with European Data Protection Authorities. It
includes, for the first time, written commitments and assurances
regarding access to data by
