“We need a solution. Global business relies on transferring data. You cannot stop that.”
January 31st was the deadline for a deal between the US and European Union regarding digital data transfer. However, a consent was not reached. This makes things tricky for US tech and not-tech companies alike, giants like Google, Facebook and General Electric included.
On Wednesday the European national privacy agencies will publish their solution on how digital data – including financial and social media information – should be safely transferred between the two regions. These agencies are the ones who set the deadline in the first place. It seems the two parties still hope to come up with a deal of their own before the new regulations come out on Wednesday.
The Safe Harbor agreement had been standing for 15 years, until about three months ago when the European Court of Justice invalidated it. The judges ruled that the personal data of European citizens was not sufficiently protected when transferred to the United States and their decision was effective immediately. That’s when and why the negotiations between the US and the EU started.
It is a murky period for US companies and although none have changed the way they do business, many have lawyered up in the case a deal is still not struck.
American officials have offered many concessions to the European party, still some challenging points remain unsolved – including how Europeans can have legal issues solved in American courts. Germany is one of the European countries that has summoned for stricter data protection regulations.
The conclusion remains: there is still a huge difference over what digital data protection means for the EU compared to the US.
