EP calls for improvements of EU-U.S. "Privacy Shield"

The European Commission should go on negotiating with the United States to remedy "deficiencies" in proposed "Privacy Shield" protection for the European Union (EU) citizens' data transferred to the U.S. for commercial purposes, said the European Parliament (EP) in a non-legislative resolution passed on Thursday.

In the resolution, passed by 501 votes to 119 with 31 abstentions, MEPs welcomed the efforts of the Commission and the U.S. administration to achieve "substantial improvements" in the Privacy Shield compared to the Safe Harbor decision which it is to replace.

However, they voiced concern about "deficiencies" in the proposed new arrangement negotiated by the Commission, including the U.S. authorities' access to data transferred under the Privacy Shield and the possibility of collecting bulk data.

Moreover, they were worried about the proposed U.S. ombudsperson to be neither "sufficiently independent", nor "vested with adequate powers to effectively exercise and enforce its duty", as well as the complexity of the redress mechanism.

MEPs called on the Commission to conduct periodic "robust reviews" of its decision that Privacy Shield protection is adequate, particularly in the light of experience with the new EU data protection rules which are to take effect in two years. Endit