Not so Safe Harbor: EU-US data protection cooperation on the rocks.

cameraAfter the Snowden relevations, the European Union is finally getting its data privacy act together and it looks like a brutal fight is ahead, possibly leaving global corporations’ reliance on the longstanding safe harbor provisions, standard clauses and consents listing somewhere mid-Atlantic.

Here’s the EU Commission VP & Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Reding on Safe Harbor at the Vilnius Informal Justice Council 19 July 2013:

The Safe Harbor agreement may not be so safe after all. It could be a loophole for data transfers because it allows data transfers from EU to US companies – although US data protection standards are lower than our European ones. I have informed ministers that the Commission is working on a solid assessment of the Safe Harbor Agreement which we will present before the end of the year.

The Safe Harbor agreement enables data to be transferred from the EU to the US. The Safe Harbor framework was developed by the US Department of Commerce, in consultation with the Commission, industry and non-governmental organisations to provide US organizations with a streamlined means of satisfying the Directive’s “adequate protection” requirement.

The Commission is working on an assessment which it will present before the end of the year. We can only hope that the US realizes what a hole it’s dug for its tech companies before then. Quick and decisive action is needed but nothing is coming from either the Obama Administration or the US Congress.

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