At Workday, a California-based HR software provider with more than 2,000 customers headquartered in Europe, the mood is upbeat. Chandler Morse, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, believes this is proof that the US and EU can reach agreement on more than just the privacy shield. “There are a number of other technological issues being resolved within the EU-U.S. bilaterally, so for many of us this is a positive sign that the EU and the US can work together,” he said. together. The AI Act and the Data Act could also be beneficiaries of this new partnership.
However, privacy campaigners were unimpressed — either by more cooperation or Biden’s proposal for a Data Protection Review Court, which would allow EU citizens to challenge how security authorities US security uses their data.
Ursula Pachl, Deputy Minister, said: “Despite the US authorities’ efforts to check the cracks of the original Privacy Shield, the reality is that the EU and the US still have a different approach to data protection. Director General of the European Consumer Organization (BEUC). “By the time EU citizen data is being transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean, that data will not be provided with the same protections as in the EU.”
Biden’s executive order will now be sent to Brussels, where EU officials can spend up to six months working out the details. A new data deal is expected to be ready around March 2023, although privacy activists are expected to oppose the ruling in court. “This order will never be enough for the privacy community in Europe,” said Tyson Barker, head of technology and global affairs at the German Council on Foreign Relations.
European Commission trust The new agreement may survive a court challenge. But the US has been quietly hedging its bets, Barker said. At an October 2021 conference, Christopher Hoff, deputy assistant secretary for services at the Biden Administration, speak he advocates for the global expansion of a rival privacy agreement — the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Cross-Border Privacy Rules system. “Actually, the US wants to say we have an alternative and we want to set this as the global standard,” adds Barker.
Schrems, however, is not worried about another privacy agreement that would limit EU influence. “Personally, I don’t care what standards other countries like,” he said. “I know the law in the EU.”
