US and EU sign new preliminary agreement on data movement-Information Technology

The new agreement between the US and EU is expected to raise the level of protection and privacy of data from Europe, although some legal doubts remain.

The European Union (EU) and the US announced a preliminary agreement on data migration on March 25, seeking to end the legal troubles in Europe of thousands of US technology companies. . Earlier, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled against two agreements on this issue due to concerns about Europe’s ability to protect data in the US.

At a joint press conference in Brussels, US President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the preliminary agreement took into account the CJEU’s concerns and included stronger provisions on data protection. Whether. “Today, we agreed to unprecedented terms protecting the privacy and data security of our citizens,” Biden said.

Ms. von der Leyen said: “I am pleased that we have reached agreement in principle for a new regulatory framework for transatlantic data transit… [Thỏa thuận này] will allow data to move stably and reliably between the EU and the US, while protecting privacy and civil liberties.”

An EU official said it would take months to turn the preliminary agreement into a complete legal treaty.

Mr. Markus J. Beyrer, director of lobbying group BusinessEurope, said: “Legal certainty in data flows will help innovation, growth and job creation. This is a win-win agreement for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”

While tech businesses welcomed the news, Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems criticized the deal’s “lack of detail”.

Mr. Schrems has long highlighted concerns about the risk of US intelligence agencies accessing data from Europe in the case against Facebook, which led to the CJEU canceling prior agreements on data flows.

According to Mr. Schrems, if the US only provided guarantees about law enforcement instead of changing the law on data tracking and monitoring, he would not hesitate to bring the case to court again.

Attorney Patrick Van Eecke from the law firm Cooley (Brussels) is concerned that the agreement could be rejected further in court if the terms are not strong enough. “Like last time, privacy campaigners will probably try to get this deal rejected by the CJEU,” Mr. Van Eecke said. The recent decision of the US Supreme Court in the case of FBI v. Fazaga will also make it difficult for the US side to convince Europe that the US has strong enough privacy protection capabilities.