Privacy Shield Deal Wins European Approval
A transatlantic data-transfer deal has won approval from European Union officials, giving official life to what’s known at the Privacy Shield pact.
The deal impacts some 4,000 U.S. companies—including Google, Facebook, financial services firms and others—that transfer data between Europe and the U.S. Privacy Shield replaces the Safe Harbor agreement, which was struck down by a European court last year when a judge ruled in favor of an Austrian citizen who claimed his personal data was not being sufficiently protected by Facebook in light of revelations about U.S. government surveillance practices.
Legal experts have said the new deal could still face challenges in Europe, where many privacy advocates don’t think protections go far enough, and are reportedly seeking test cases. The New York Times reports that any cases filed in the wake of the Privacy Shield agreement are unlikely to be heard before Europe’s highest court until late 2017 “at the earliest.”
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