After the EU privacy watchdogs raised their concerns over the data transfer pact, the US showed no interest in changing the elements of the deal which was agreed with the European Commission in February.
Last week, the US Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade, Stefan Selig, said the opinion of the regulators is an important milestone. He also added that the government is very cautious in not upsetting the delicate balance that was achieved when they negotiated the original script.
According to The Hill, the Privacy Shield aims to supplant a 2000 deal which allowed more than 4,000 institutions to legally handle the data of citizens in Europe. In October, the agreement was struck down over privacy concerns, which left the negotiators running to create the new pact.
The US-EU partnership in Privacy Shield came into an arrangement in February after two years of discussions and will help firms move Europeans' date to the US without establishing a complex legal contract to comply with the firm EU data transfer regulations.
The New York Times reported that the regulators were worried that the firms could utilize the data in a wrong way, including data from social media posts and search engine queries. The group also expressed their fear that the American intelligence agencies and law enforcement might gain access to an individual's personal information without enough protections in place. Meanwhile, the US said that it would take all concerns into consideration.
The Article 29 Working Party, EU's 28 data protection officials, published a non-binding opinion on the framework which called for more reassurances over surveillance practices in the US, reports Reuters. Safe Harbor, the previous data transfer pact, was struck down by a high EU court on concerns regarding the mass surveillance in the US.
The Privacy Shield should be passed and approved by EU member state representatives before it can come into force, something the Washington and the European Commission hope can be done by June.
