On 12 July, the EC formally adopted the EU-US Privacy Shield, formally the adequacy decision. The Commission also notified the national authorities of this adequacy decision. It will thus automatically enter into force. On the US side, it will be published in the Federal Register and starting in August, companies will be able to sign up to it. The new framework for commercial data transfers has been negotiated since the EU Court of Justice struck down the previous deal, the Safe Harbor. The new agreement addresses the court´s objections – the US have ruled out indiscriminate and systematic processing of Europeans´ data. Also, there are several easy-to-use redress mechanisms. On the US side, national security services´ access to EU citizens´ data will be monitored by an ombudsman independent from the security services. With Privacy Shield, firms on both sides of the Atlantic once again get a sound legal framework for the ever growing data transfers.

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