General overview of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield

After the details of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield were released on February 29^th, several institutions will examine its legal implications and validity in order to determine if the new Framework complies with the European Standards on Data Protection. One of these institutions is the Article 29 WP, which will reveal its opinion on the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield by the end of April.

Eduardo Ustaran, an expert in international Privacy and Data Protection, has analyzed the positive impact that the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield may have for the future development of global privacy:

• This Framework may widespread the European Data Protection culture at an international level because multinationals will globally adopt this model, in order to comply with the European Standards.
• Additionally, the U.S. government is adapting its legislation to the Data Protection requirements established by the EU Legislation in this field. For example, the U.S. Judicial Redress Act was approved on February 2016 in line with the new conflict resolution system proposed in the Privacy Shield. This way, EU Citizens will have the possibility to raise complaints to U.S. Authorities when their rights to Privacy and Data Protection have been violated by an organization.
• Also the judiciary will play an important role as ultimate institution that mediates between the citizens and the state.
• As mentioned above, the conflict resolution system proposed in the Privacy Shield includes the participation of several institutions at different levels, which provides the individuals many possibilities to exercise their rights as data subjects. Therefore, individuals will be able, for example, to raise a complaint towards the organization or to raise a complaint at the local DPA.
• The Framework may foster the communication and collaboration between American and European Institutions. For instance, it is foreseen that an annual revision of the Framework takes place.