EU - US Privacy Shield Update 08/07/16

“We have agreed on the changes and will be able to adopt it in early July,” European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said Friday.

Multiple sources are reporting that a revised draft has been reached on the EU - US Privacy Shield. The European Commission (who have been negotiating terms) are said to be happy with the amended changes and an official statement by the EU is likely early next week. Businesses and stakeholders will then be expected to conform to the new legislations.

The areas which were in contention, and which are being reportedly amended for the new draft are;

• The autonomy of the US Ombudsman.
• Businesses will have to delete user’s personal data after it has served its initial purpose that it was collected for. The same will apply to third parties which collect data.
• Limitations to be placed on the NSA’s bulk collection of data.

Much of the amended changes centred around the loose wording of the initial draft, which the EU commission felt left a lot of room for interpretation.

A vote from the 28 EU commissioners is still needed for the privacy shield to come into effect, but this vote is said to be effectively ceremonial and is set to pass unopposed.

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