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Safe Harbor ripped and replaced with Privacy Shield in last-minute US-Europe deal
European and US legislators have hammered out a last-minute deal to allow data flows across the Atlantic to continue without breaking the law. Under the terms of the new deal, which has yet to be ratified by EU members, the US will give an annual written commitment that it won't indulge in mass surveillance of EU citizens, and this will be audited by both sides once a year.
US companies wishing to import EU citizens' data must give "robust obligations on how personal data is processed," and comply to the same standards as European data protection laws. If EU citizens want to complain about how their data is being used, companies must respond within a deadline and at no cost to the complainant.
The so-called Privacy Shield deal replaces the Safe Harbor agreement that stood for more than 15 years before being struck down by a court in October. It's the result of three months of frantic and sometimes fraught negotiations between the two trade blocks, with tech firms in both zones pushing hard for a deal.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/02/safe_harbor_replaced_with_privacy_shield/ [theregister.co.uk]
[Press Release]: EU Commission and United States agree on new framework for transatlantic data flows: EU-US Privacy Shield [europa.eu]
[Related]: The Commission issued guidance for companies on the possibilities of transatlantic data transfers following the ruling until a new framework is put in place [europa.eu] [PDF]
