EU Member States Approve Amended Framework

On Friday, EU member state representatives approved the final version of the Privacy Shield, the commission said.

The European Commission said the support of the Member States paves the way for the formal adoption of the Privacy Shield text.

Once it becomes official, the shield replaces the safe harbor agreement that a European Union court invalidated last October over concerns about the USA being able to hold up its end of the agreement given the government surveillance revealed by the Edward Snowden leaks.

The deal is also important for businesses who have had to contend with more complex and costly data transfer methods since the Luxembourg court scrapped the old Safe Harbour agreement.

Thomas Boué, director general of policy for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at BSA the Software Alliance, said the deal “will usher in a new era of stability and much-needed legal certainty in transatlantic data flows to the benefit of all sides”, in a Friday statement. A European court struck down Safe Harbor late a year ago.

European Union member states on Friday approved a highly-criticised deal with the USA meant to curb government spying on the personal internet data of European Union citizens. Safe Harbor came under scrutiny after the Edward Snowden disclosures raised new concerns about the United States’ mass surveillance practices.

The Commission is expected to formally adopt the new deal on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

This was on the back of a legal challenge by Austrian Max Schrems, who questioned the ability of Safe Harbour to protect the data of European citizens from the mass surveillance activities of the USA government.

Privacy Shield will see the U.S. create an ombudsman position within the State Department to field complaints from EU citizens about US spying, and it has ruled out indiscriminate mass surveillance of Europeans’ data.

The United States will create an ombudsman within the State Department to field complaints from EU citizens about US spying and has ruled out indiscriminate mass surveillance of Europeans’ data.

Industry group DigitalEurope, which represents much of the USA tech industry, including Apple, Google and IBM, is also clearly relieved that a decision has been reached.

The final text approved Friday addresses some of these concerns, an European Union official said on condition of anonymity, for example by clarifying that old data must be deleted and obliging companies to check that third parties will protect the privacy of data they are handed.

A major U.S. -EU data transfer pact has cleared a significant hurdle and is set for final approval as early as next week.

Digital rights group Privacy International (PI) said the revised pact had been drawn up on a “flawed premise”.

Hon said: “It is very likely that the Privacy Shield, if adopted by the Commission next week as expected, will be challenged by activists or data protection authorities, but it depends on what concessions the Commission managed to get from the United States – especially on mass surveillance”.