Tag: U.S. negotiators

U.S. Negotiators clarify EU-U.S. Privacy Shield

19. July 2016

Recently, the European online newspaper POLITICO published an interview conducted with the two lead U.S. negotiators of the Privacy Shield: Justin Antonipillai, counselor to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and acting undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs, and Ted Dean, a deputy assistant secretary in the department.

Antonipillai explained the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield as “a program to allow companies to transfer data from the EU to the U.S. in a way that meets requirements under European privacy laws”. He remarked that the main objective of the Privacy Shield is to make both, companies and EU citizens, confident that the requirements to transfer personal data are being meet.

He also explained how American and European different methodologies to ensure privacy and data protection have converged in order to agree on the Privacy Shield. According to Antonipillai, an important fact is that companies are certifying and following the principles voluntarily.

Dean also recognizes that the Privacy Shield may be challenged in court. But he adds that the current framework has been built up and discussed with EU Institutions and European DPAs and there is an interest from both sides on a long-term duration of the new framework. Finally, he stated that the impact of the “Brexit” on international personal data transfers cannot be predicted in advance.