Another Challenge To The Transfer Of Foreign Data To The U.S.

As previously reported, the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield—one of the methods for properly transferring personal data into the U.S.—was upended by the Court of Justice of the European Union's (CJEU) conclusion that the Privacy Shield did not provide an adequate level of data protection. Specifically, in the so-called Schrems II decision, the CJEU found that under U.S. surveillance laws, the U.S. government has access to personal data that does not provide Europeans with privacy protections equivalent to those in the E.U. Several months later, we continue to see the ripple effects of Schrems II.

On September 8, 2020, the Swiss Data Protection Authority (the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, or "FDPIC"), issued a seven-page policy paper on the transfer of personal data from Switzerland to the U.S. See Policy Paper. The policy paper arises out of an annual review of the Privacy Shield conducted by the Swiss delegation and the U.S.