“Better Euro-American regulation of data protection will take months”

So says Wojciech Wiewiorowski, European Supervisor of Data Protection (EDPS) against Reuters news agency.

Earlier, European Union Commissioner Didier Reynders (Justice and Consumer Affairs) expressed his concerns that the legal solution will take too long.

Streep door Privacy Shield

The European Commission has been in talks with the US authorities on new agreements for months. These are necessary because in July, the European Court of Justice put an end to what is known as the Privacy Shield, which is a regulation for the transfer of personal data from the European Union to the United States.

Under the Privacy Shield, American companies are allowed to process the personal data of European users in the United States. However, the court ruled, that European citizens do not have the opportunity to go to court for breaches of privacy, for example, by the United States government.

Max Shrims

Security services also have very broad access to this data. The case began on the initiative of Austrian privacy activist Max Schirms, who filed a complaint about Facebook processing his personal data in the US.

But for now, we have to deal with the Privacy Shield, Wiewiorowski says. “I do not expect a new solution in a matter of weeks, maybe even months,” he told Reuters. The main reason for the delay is the Biden government, which may have other priorities.

Meanwhile, the European Union is already working on proposals to improve data protection. It aims to prevent the personal data of Europeans from falling into the wrong hands outside Europe via internet companies.