Consumer Group Urges EU to Suspend Privacy Shield for Inadequate Data Protection
The Center for Digital Democracy is urging the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield be suspended because Europeans' personal information isn't being adequately protected. "EU citizens and consumers who deal with companies enrolled in the Privacy Shield program confront a serious erosion of…
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their data protection and privacy rights," wrote CDD Executive Director Jeff Chester in a Wednesday letter to Bruno Gencarelli, head of the European Commission's Data Protection Unit. Gencarelli formally requested feedback from CDD and other nongovernmental organizations as the agreement approaches its first review in September (see 1704200034). Chester wrote that EU data protection authorities should suspend the program "in light of its lack of any policies, rules, or enforcement that would provide [meaningful] adequacy or equivalency" and U.S. companies should operate under the general data protection regulation that will take effect next year. Chester said there's "no effective legal framework" protecting consumer privacy in the U.S. and that Privacy Shield allows "far-reaching data use practices" with key EU policies being ignored. He added self-certification is "both inadequate and dangerous" and the program's website is full of "typos, broken links, and sloppy data entry" suggesting a "disregard for its operations." There were 2,274 organizations enrolled in the program as of Wednesday, according to the Privacy Shield website.