US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday 7 October to strengthen privacy protections in the context of transatlantic data transfers. The order comes six months after the US President and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced an agreement in principle on a new data transfer agreement (see EUROPE 12919/11) to replace the old ‘Privacy Shield’ framework, which was invalidated by the Court of Justice of the European Union in July 2020 (see EUROPE 12536/9).
In detail, the executive order is intended to provide legally binding limitations and enhanced independent oversight of the US government's access to Europeans’ data. In addition, the text should provide effective redress mechanisms for EU citizens to more easily assert these protections before the US authorities.
Since the invalidation of the ‘Privacy Shield’ two years ago, the EU and the US have been left without clear guidelines on data transfers, despite the fact that these have grown significantly in recent years.
In the wake of this announcement, several organisations welcomed the signing of this decree, such as the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and the Software Alliance (BSA).
“Today’s order brings us closer to the implementation of the new EU-US data protection framework, which will strengthen international data protection and support the digital transformation of thousands of US and European businesses”, said BSA President and CEO Victoria Espinel. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)