White House and EU reach agreement on trans-Atlantic data sharing

Washington CNN Business — The White House has hammered out a new agreement with the EU that could again allow businesses to transfer data and personal information across the Atlantic, a highly-anticipated move that could provide assurance to thousands of companies after Europe’s top court struck down the deal’s predecessor in 2020. In joint remarks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, US President Joe Biden said Friday that the new partnership will “once again authorize transatlantic data flows that help facilitate $7.1 trillion in economic relationships with the EU.” “This will enable predictable and trustworthy data flows between the EU and U.S., safeguarding privacy and civil liberties,” von der Leyen said. According to a 2020 congressional letter to the Commerce Department and the Federal Trade Commission, US-EU data flows “are the highest in the world.” “Transatlantic data flows enable people and companies to transmit information for online communication, track global supply chains, share research, provide cross-border services, and support technological innovation, among other activities,” the Congressional Research Service wrote in a report last year. Under the tentative deal, which must still be finalized, US surveillance authorities will only access EU citizens’ data “to advance legitimate national security objectives” and will not “disproportionately impact … individual privacy and civil liberties,” according to a White House fact sheet.