Report: EU will have right to suspend data pact with US

The European Union will have the right to call off a new data transfer agreement with the U.S. at any time if it believes the U.S. is not doing enough to protect citizens’ privacy, the EU Justice Commissioner said Thursday.

“In the new Safe Harbour there will be a suspension clause, saying that under concrete conditions we are going to suspend [it],” Commissioner Vera Jourova said at a conference in Brussels, according to Reuters.

{mosads}The original Safe Harbor agreement made it legal for U.S. firms to handle European citizens’ data by allowing them to “self-certify” that they met Europe’s stricter privacy controls. The EU high court struck down the pact in October, saying that because of its surveillance practices, the U.S. couldn’t be seen to adequately protect individuals’ privacy.

Over 4,000 firms — from hospitality to social media companies — had relied on Safe Harbor to make their cross-Atlantic data transfers legal.

Negotiators have been scrambling to update the agreement before Europe’s data protection authorities say they will begin taking enforcement action in January.

Skeptics have warned that in the absence of strong enough privacy protections, a new Safe Harbor could be struck down as summarily as the original agreement.

Europe has been pushing for stronger privacy controls, including allowing Europeans to complain directly to national authorities over data misuse in the U.S.

But talks have been stymied by U.S. reluctance to offer broad concessions in how it accesses data for national security purposes.