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posted by janrinok on Sunday November 08 2015, @08:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the let's-get-it-right-this-time dept.

The European Commission has said it wants ongoing talks with the U.S. to agree a so-called ‘Safe Harbor 2.0′ agreement on data transfers to be completed by January 2016 — laying out a three month timetable to hammer out a new deal on transatlantic data flows.

The fifteen year old Safe Harbor agreement, which had allowed some 4,700 companies to self-certify that they would provide adequate protection of European citizens’ data once it was in the U.S. for processing — was ruled invalid by Europe’s top court early last month [discussed here], leaving businesses scrambling to figure out how to operate legal data transfers in the meanwhile.

The trigger for the ECJ decision? U.S. intelligence agency mass surveillance programs undermining Europeans’ fundamental data protection rights. Intelligence agency access to data remains the sticking point for agreeing any new Safe Harbor 2.0 deal.

Today the EC reiterated the alternative methods available for businesses to enable data flows to continue in the interregnum between data transfer agreements — issuing a Communication which details the various options. These include contractual clauses, intra-group transfers and individual user consent.

However the latter consent option was dubbed an alternative of “last resort” by Commissioner Věra Jourová, speaking during a press conference. She noted that while it is up to companies to choose the “effective rules”, she stressed they “must be able to prove that the protection is in place — that they guarantee high protection of the data transferred to the U.S.”.

So businesses seeking to sidestep data protection requirements via a blanket consent check-box pushed out at their users is not going to cut it.

Today’s EC Communication makes plain Safe Harbor is no longer a viable option — noting that “data transfers can no longer be based on the Commission’s invalidated Safe Harbour Decision”. But, also speaking during the press conference, Commissioner Andrus Ansip sought to strike a reassuring tone for both citizens and businesses in the wake of the Safe Harbor strike down.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Sunday November 08 2015, @01:39PM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 08 2015, @01:39PM (#260336) Journal

    I read it quite differently to you, rather as 2 separate elements that should perhaps have been joined with a 'should be aware that':

    So businesses seeking to sidestep data protection requirements

    and

    a blanket consent check-box pushed out at their users is not going to cut it.

    Either way a [sic] could have been employed. I will now write out 100 times that 'I must do better to please the grammar nazis and pedants'.
    :-)

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday November 08 2015, @06:25PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 08 2015, @06:25PM (#260426) Journal
    I'll let Weird Al know about your penance ;)
    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford