Brussels sets new rules for secure data transfer to US

The European Commission has passed new EU legislation that it hopes will make European personal data safer for the US. For example, there are conditions on access to EU data by US intelligence services. The EU’s day-to-day administration says it will be limited to what is “necessary and proportionate”.

This is the third time Brussels has tried to legally shut down data exchanges between the US and the EU. Previous treaties on European personal data privacy protection were set aside by the European Court of Justice because they were too limited. Following a complaint by privacy activist Maximilian Schrems about Facebook, the European Court of Justice in July 2020 annulled a previous agreement on privacy protection between the EU and the US from 2016.

“This new data privacy framework will ensure secure data flows for Europeans and legal certainty for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic,” Commission President Ursula van der Leyen said.

Last year, Von der Leyen already signed an agreement in principle with US President Joe Biden, allowing secure, free data to flow to the US, such as messages on social media or the personnel administration of a US company in the EU.