The EU's privacy regulators have expressed concerns about the proposed Privacy Shield agreement on data transfers to the US, saying its doesn't do enough to prevent mass, indiscriminate surveillance of EU residents, reports Ars Technica. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, the Chairman of the so-called Article 29 Working Group, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin said that the privacy regulators are awaiting a forthcoming ruling by the EU Court of Justice on whether mass surveillance of citizens by intelligence services could be legal. If such surveillance is found unlawful, it would have a big impact on the national security exceptions included in the Privacy Shield.
Falque-Pierrotin said that the data protection authorities also had concerns about the independence and effectiveness of the Privacy Shield ombudsperson, who will deal with complaints from Europeans about how their data has been used by US law enforcement, such as the NSA. The regulators did concede that the Privacy Shield was an improvement on the previous Safe Harbour agreement, struck down last year by the EU court for failure to live up to EU data protection standards.
Falque-Pierrotin also noted that the Privacy Shield may need revisions to bring it in line with the upcoming new directive and regulation on data protection in the EU. The regulation is expected to be approved this week by the European Parliament, giving EU members two years then to implement the changes.
The Article 29 group's opinion is only advice to the European Commission, which negotiated the agreement with the US. The Article 31 Committee, consisting of representatives of the EU states, must also give its opinion on the agreement, and most of the members are thought to support the Privacy Shield. The Article 31 Committee is expected to consider the Privacy Shield in the coming weeks, before giving its opinion later in May. The Commission aims to take a final decision in June, after which the agreement would come into effect immediately.
Source: http://www.telecompaper.com/news/eu-privacy-regulators-skeptical-about-privacy-shield--1138330