Greens/EFA event: International data flows – Can there be a Privacy Shield 3.0 that protects our fundamental rights?

EPIC Deputy Director Caitriona Fitzgerald will join MEPs Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield & Patrick Breyer, Max Schrems, Dr. Kristina Irion, and Mariano della Santi to discuss what a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework mean for the privacy of citizens on both sides of the Atlantic.

Could this agreement spark new federal surveillance legislation in the US, and usher in a new era for a digital trans-Atlantic relationship based on the respect for fundamental rights? International data transfers with third countries happen every day, so how can we ensure that there are safeguards in place to protect our data?

Join on 17th November 2022, 15h30-17h, to discuss these questions and more, along with experts on privacy, data protection and surveillance. 

Speakers 

 Moderation – MEPs Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield & Patrick Breyer

• Max Schrems, Activist, lawyer and author who founded online privacy activist group NOYB – European Center for Digital Rights
• Dr. Kristina Irion, Associate Professor at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam
• Mariano della Santi, Legal and Policy Officer at Open Rights Group
• Caitriona Fitzgerald, Deputy Director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

Background

US and EU officials have been negotiating a successor to the Privacy Shield since the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) invalidated the adequacy decision in July 2020 in the Schrems II decision.

In March 2022, the United States and the European Union announced that they had reached a political agreement on a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework. Officials say this will once again enable trans-Atlantic data flows without the need for Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs). Both US and UK officials have assured us that this new agreement will also address the concerns raised by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) when it struck down the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework in 2020. However, even following President Biden’s executive order enhancing safeguards in October 2022, data protection and privacy experts on both sides of the Atlantic still have reservations that a new agreement would adequately protect fundamental rights.