Privacy Shield succession: political agreement, legal pitfalls

The EU and the US have agreed on an improved Privacy Shield. „We’ve agreed to unprecedented protections for data privacy and security for citizens,“ US President Joe Biden said Friday at a press conference with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. „We are very pleased that we found an agreement in principle on a new framework for transatlantic data flows,“ von der Leyen said. This would make data traffic across the North Atlantic „predictable and trustworthy“, „balancing security, the right to privacy and data protection,“ she said. There is great joy about this among those involved, but it could be premature. For, according to Ursula von der Leyen, this is an agreement in principle. The European Data Protection Supervisor had a sober reaction: In principle, he welcomed the announcement, explained Wojciech Wiewiórowski. But such an agreement would have to meet the requirements set by the European Court of Justice.