American and European officials met in Washington for three days to evaluate the first year of the 'Privacy Shield' mechanism, for the transfer to the United States of personal data for commercial purposes (see EUROPE 11864). Although the programme is working, improvements to its functioning will nonetheless be required, they stated on Thursday 21 September, in a joint press release.
“I appreciate the commitment the US administration has shown to transatlantic data transfers and our concerns”, said European Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova, following the latest discussions, which ended with a telephone conference with American Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
In the course of this first evaluation, the authorities examined aspects related to the administration and application of the mechanism, including issues of trade and national security, the press release states. Recent legal developments in the United States were also discussed and the value of regular communication between American and European authorities was recognised.
In just one year, nearly 2,400 organisations have joined Privacy Shield. According to a study by the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) published on Tuesday, 114 companies headquartered in the EU are participating in the mechanism, which is an increase of 3.5% compared to its predecessor, the 'Safe Harbour' programme.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the commissioner was in Silicon Valley to discuss the implementation of the programme by the participants, and met representatives of the American giants – Google, Apple and Facebook – who reportedly reiterated their commitments to respect the privacy of their users, she said on Twitter. Tackling online hate speech, protecting consumers and new data protection rules were also on the agenda, according to a European source.
Although both sides stressed that the mechanism was working and that they “remain committed to continued collaboration to ensure it functions as intended”, it will certainly take more to win over stakeholders who remain concerned at the collection and exploitation of the data of European citizens by American intelligence agencies (see EUROPE 11865). On the basis of these talks with the American administration and participating companies, the Commission has announced that it will publish its report on the evaluation exercise in mid-October. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)