Biden signs executive order to implement European data transfer pact

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Biden signs executive order to implement European data transfer pact

U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to implement a European Union-United States data transfer framework that was announced in March that adopts new American intelligence gathering privacy safeguards.

The deal aims to end the limbo in which thousands of companies found themselves after Europe's top court threw out two previous pacts due to concerns about U.S. surveillance.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters that the executive order is the culmination of our effort to restore trust and stability to transatlantic data flows and to ensure the privacy of the E.U. The framework addresses the concerns of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which struck down the former E.U. The U.S. Privacy Shield framework is a valid data transfer mechanism under the E.U. Transatlantic data flows are critical to enabling the $7.1 trillion E.U., according to the White House. The framework and the U.S. economic relationship will restore an important legal basis for transatlantic data flows. The White House said Biden created an independent, binding multi-layer redress mechanism for individuals who believe their personal data was illegally collected by U.S. intelligence agencies and bolstered current privacy and civil liberties safeguards for U.S. intelligence gathering.

The previous system had only one ombudsperson inside the U.S. administration, but officials said it would take about six months for this to complete a complex approval process. The court rejected.

Biden s order adopts new safeguards on the activities of the U.S. intelligence gathering, requiring them to do only what is necessary and proportionate, and creates a two-step system of redress - first to an intelligence agency watchdog and then to a court with independent judges whose decisions would bind intelligence agencies.

In March, Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the provisional agreement offered stronger legal protections and addressed the E.U. Raimondo will send letters to the E.U. on Friday. U.S. agencies are responsible for the operation and enforcement of the E.U. She said the U.S. data privacy framework will form the basis for the European Commission's assessment in a new adequacy decision.

The Civil Liberties Protection Officer CLPO in the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence will investigate complaints and make decisions.

The U.S. Justice Department is establishing a Data Protection Review Court to review the decisions of CLPO. Judges with experience in data privacy and national security will be appointed from outside the U.S. government.

European privacy activists have threatened to challenge the framework if they did not think it adequately protects privacy.