EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Renewed, Still in Dispute in Court

October 23, 2019

The European Commission has renewed the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, a framework permitting the flow of European consumers' personal data to the U.S. The Commission concluded the recent FTC-Facebook settlement did not bar enforcement actions related to the Privacy Shield. The Commission also noted positively the appointment of a Ombudsperson to receive complaints about U.S. surveillance, FTC enforcement actions for false Privacy Shield certifications, and assurances from the U.S. intelligence community that specific selectors are used to limit foreign intelligence collection. The Commission did urge the FTC to bring actions for substantive violations of the Shield. In comments on the Privacy Shield and in a letter to Congress, EPIC called for a permanent end to the broad telephone record collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The validity of the Privacy Shield is still in dispute in several cases before Europe's highest court.

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