The United States President Joe Bidensigned last Friday an order that gives green light to the implementation of a framework designed for data protection in the transmission of information andbetween the United States and the European Union. This new framework was announced last March, and according to Reuters it adopts new security and privacy mechanisms arranged by US intelligence entities.
With this agreement and start-up, the state of limbo in which thousands of companies are probably put an end to after the Supreme Court of the European Union rejected two of the three pacts that it had approved in this regard, due to doubts about data surveillance by the United States.
The United States Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondohas stated that the order approving the implementation of the new data transfer framework between the two regions «is the culmination of our joint effort to restore confidence and stability to transatlantic data flows“, and that “will ensure the privacy of personal data from the European Union«.
The framework addresses the concerns of the Court of Justice of the European Union that rejected previous agreements on data protection between the United States and the EU, known as the Privacy Shield, which were a valid data transfer mechanism. under the European Union until the rejection of the supreme court of the region.
According to the White House, “Transatlantic data flows are critical to enabling US-EU 7.1 trillion economic relations.” They have also pointed out that this framework “will restore an important legal basis for transatlantic flows«.
The order signed by Biden promotes “privacy and civil liberties mechanisms» in the face of U.S. intelligence gathering, and creates a binding, multi-layered compensation and rectification mechanism for individuals who believe their personal data was unlawfully collected by U.S. intelligence agencies Joined. As for EU officials, they have noted that it will take about six months to get the approval process underway.
With this order from Biden, new security mechanisms are put in place on the data collection activities of the United States intelligence, since it makes it a requirement that it only be done when necessary, and done in a proportionate manner. In addition, he creates a two-step rectification system: first to a body of an intelligence agency and then to a court with independent judges, to whose decisions the intelligence agencies will be subject.
The next step that the United States Government will take is to send several letters to the European Union from US agencies, «noting the implementation and strengthening of the data privacy framework between the United States and the European Union, which will form the basis of the European Commission’s assessment in a new decision on its adequacy«. Several privacy activists have already threatened to challenge this framework if they believe it does not adequately protect privacy.
With this new order, the Civil Liberties Protection Office (CLPO)from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, will investigate complaintsas well as decision making. The United States Department of Justice is already implementing a Data Protection Review Tribunalwhich will aim review CLPO decisions independently. Several judges with experience in data privacy and national security will be part of it, and they will be appointed from outside the US government.
