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Biden and von der Leyen share data

Data Guest blog GDPR Information integrity Integrity

In the midst of the serious news flow surrounding President Biden's visit to Brussels, an important announcement was made: the EU and the US have reached a preliminary agreement to facilitate data transfers between the EU and US companies. It's all about the GDPR, of course, and it's called the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework.

The new framework will include rules limiting access to data by US intelligence agencies. Access must be necessary and proportionate for national security. The proposal also includes mechanisms to investigate and address complaints from Europeans regarding access to data by US intelligence services.

There is still some work to be done on this issue, but the initiative is very welcome. The issue of transatlantic data transfers has been a messy one, to say the least, as various attempts to create rules for data transfers have fallen before the European Court of Justice.

A long-term solution for data transfers requires data protection levels that meet the requirements of the European Court of Justice ruling in the so-called Schrems II case. With this agreement, the parties have agreed to move forward and seek solutions so that we now have secure data transfers with a reliable and sustainable legal basis. The two previous agreements reached were rejected by the Court of Justice of the European Union on the grounds of insufficient protection of personal data.

What happens next? The agreement in principle will now be translated into legal documents. President Biden will issue an Executive Order setting out the US commitments. The commitments will then be evaluated and hopefully form the basis for an adequacy decision by the European Commission.

With such a decision, no specific authorization is needed to transfer personal data to the country to which the decision relates. Such decisions are currently in place for data transfers to Japan and Canada, among others. But don't press send yet - according to media reports, it will take months before this is finalized.

The issue is urgent on both sides. According to the Commission, data transfers generate €900 billion in cross-border trade, boost digital competitiveness and promote economic cooperation. So let's hope for a third time lucky for the attempts to organize data traffic across the Atlantic.