by Robert Whitcomb | Jul 11, 2016 | News
The European Union has approved a new agreement on how consumer data must be transferred with the United States. This brings to an end months of delay caused by fears about U.S. surveillance.
The so-called Privacy Shield, the new commercial data-transfer pact, had been tentatively agreed to by the E.U. and U.S. in February. It comes into effect July 11.
The E.U.’s top court had struck down the previous data-transfer agreement, Safe Harbor, because of fears of intrusive U.S. surveillance. This left such big U.S. companies as Google, Facebook and MasterCard in legal limbo.
To read The Guardian’s story on this, please hit this link.
by Robert Whitcomb | Jun 24, 2016 | AI World Society Summit
The European Union and the United States have agreed on changes to an important data-transfer agreement. The pact includes stricter rules for companies holding information on Europeans and clearer limits on U.S. surveillance.
E.U. member nations are expected to vote on the revised E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield in early July.
Reuters reported that “Cross-border data transfers by businesses include payroll and human resources information as well as lucrative data used for targeted online advertising….”
However, revelations of mass U.S. surveillance practices three years ago intensified distrust of such huge big U.S. tech companies as Facebook, Google and Apple.
“Brussels and Washington rushed to hammer out the data pact after the E.U.’s highest court last year struck down the previous system, Safe Harbor, on concerns about mass U.S. surveillance practices, threatening data flows that are key to billions of dollars of business,” Reuters reported.
“For 15 years Safe Harbor allowed both U.S. and European firms to get around tough E.U. data transferral rules by stating they complied with European privacy standards when storing information on U.S. servers.”
To read the Reuters article, please hit this link.
