What is the EU-US Privacy Shield?

By Euronews

Published on 25/05/2016 - 16:53

The agreement which allowed major international companies to transfer data about their customers across the Atlantic was ruled illegal last…

The agreement which allowed major international companies to transfer data about their customers across the Atlantic was ruled illegal last year.

This posed a major headache for the likes of Facebook and many many other businesses, so the EU and US immediately starting working on an alternative.

However the proposed EU-US Privacy Shield has already prompted concerns

Here is what the Privacy Shield aims to achieve:

Greater transparency with stronger sanctions for companies if they do not comply.
Oversight mechanisms to ensure companies abide by
the rules.
Companies will have an obligation to reply to complaints from individuals within 45 days.
A new transfer regime will allow individuals to be certain their data will be protected.
There will be an annual joint review to monitor the functioning of the data sharing pact.

An overseeing group, composed of representatives of the EU national data protection authorities, acknowledged that significant progress had been made, but demanded clarifications on many points.