Under the tentative deal, which must still be finalized, US surveillance authorities will only access EU citizens’ data “to advance legitimate national security objectives” and wi…
The White House has hammered out a new agreement with the EU that could again allow businesses to transfer data and personal information across the Atlantic, a highly-anticipated move that could provide assurance to thousands of companies after Europe’s top court struck down the deal’s predecessor in 2020. In joint remarks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, US President Joe Biden said Friday that the new partnership will “once again authorize transatlantic data flows that help facilitate $7.1 trillion in economic relationships with the EU.” “This will enable predictable and trustworthy data flows between the EU and U.S., safeguarding privacy and civil liberties,” von der Leyen said. The announcement signals the possible end of nearly two years of uncertainty after the European Court of Justice invalidated Privacy Shield, an earlier version of the agreement. The US-EU agreement seeks to ensure that the personal information of EU citizens can be moved to US data centers while maintaining EU-level privacy protections. Thousands of businesses — and not just tech companies — rely on the smooth flow of data across the Atlantic every day. According to a 2020 congressional letter to the Commerce Department and the Federal Trade Commission, US-EU data flows “are the highest in the world.
