THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION ANNOUNCES 3RD ANNUAL REVIEW REPORT ON THE PRIVACY SHIELD

24 October 2019

In a press release published on its website on 23.10.2019, the European Commission announced the publication of the third annual review report of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.

The report confirms that the US continues to provide adequate protection of personal data transferred from EU to participating companies in the United States under the Privacy Shield. Since the second annual review report, there have been a number of improvements to the functioning of the system, as well as appointments to key oversight and redress bodies, such as the Privacy Shield Ombudsman. Regarding the evaluation of the 3-year process, the report focuses on the lessons learned from the practical implementation and daily functionality of the Privacy Shield system.

The report mentiones that today, there are about 5,000 companies involved in the data protection system between the EU and the United States. In this context, the US Department of Commerce, is executing systematical oversight on companies for ensuring compliance with Privacy Shield principles and for that purpose sample companies have to face montly checks.

However, the report also includes recommendations by the Commission to take concrete steps to better ensure the effective operation of the Privacy Shield in practice. In this context, by shortening the (re) certification process, further strengthening the (re) certification process for companies wishing to participate; expanding compliance checks, including concerning false claims of participation in the framework and recommendations on an additional guidance development for companies related to human resource data. The Commission also notes in its report that the Federal Trade Commission is expected to further step up its investigations into compliance with substantive requirements of the Privacy and to inform the Commission and the EU data protection authorities of ongoing investigations.

You can find the text of the press release here.

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Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys-at-Law

info@zumbul.av.tr