According to The Wall Street Journal, the United States and the European Union have come to a preliminary agreement regarding the storage of European data in the U.S. The deal was announced by U.S. President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on March 25.
If the agreement is successful, it will resolve a big point of contention in EU-U.S. relations. The previous deal that regulated transatlantic data flow was considered illegal by the top EU court in 2020. The court ruled that the U.S. failed to provide EU citizens with effective means to dispute the surveillance of the data conducted by the U.S. government.
The Agreement was Necessary and Inevitable
Both presidents failed to detail how the agreement would work or withstand the many possible legal challenges.
Still, President Biden emphasized that it underscored their shared commitment to privacy, the rule of law, and data protection, allowing European Union authorities to restart authorization of transatlantic data flows. This will help facilitate $7.1 trillion in the U.S.’s economic relations with the EU.
Von der Leyen stated that the EU and the U.S. have to continue adapting to the changing world, especially regarding the privacy and protection of personal data. She was happy to have finally reached an agreement regarding the new framework for transatlantic data flows.
According to the EU president, the agreement would enable reliable and predictable data flows between the U.S. and EU, Reuters reports. It will also help safeguard civil liberties and privacy. If the two presidents can manage to balance the rights to data protection, privacy, and security, it will serve as another step toward strengthening the partnership between the two parties.
Biden also said that the U.S. and the EU are coming up with creative new methods for bringing their economies and people together on their shared values.
What the Agreement Means for Both Parties
The EU-U.S. data privacy agreement is a relief for worldwide organizations, including firms that transfer data from the European Union to the United States that had concerns regarding the initial deal’s implications.
The agreement could also be viewed as a positive for U.S. technology companies that have had to fend off many cases involving European privacy regulators. Such regulations posed a threat because they could force firms to stop transatlantic data flows.
According to the New York Times, the deal was pushed hard by firms that send EU data to American servers.
Since the last pact that was struck over 18 months ago, regulators stationed in European countries have stated that companies cannot use some web services, such as Mailchimp and Google Analytics, as doing so violates the Europeans’ privacy rights.
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, threatened to shut down all its services in Europe this year if the government failed to resolve its differences.
Friday’s announcement is considered the most recent development in a lengthy debate regarding how far tech companies and governments should go to protect users’ privacy.
