Washington — The Senate Commerce Committee holds its hearing “The Invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield and the Future of Transatlantic Data Flows,” Wednesday to examine the economic impact of the suspension of the popular data transfer framework and the U.S. government’s ongoing engagement to negotiate a new transfer system.
Thousands of large and small businesses are facing legal uncertainty for their routine transfers of commercial data between the EU and U.S. after a European court invalidated the widely used Privacy Shield data transfer mechanism. The Court’s concerns stem from discrete U.S. surveillance authorities, but stand to impact a wide range of businesses as data transfers support many important business practices including customer service, payment processing, research and development, and human resources.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association has long supported accountable frameworks to enable data transfers freely and securely. The following can be attributed to CCIA President Matt Schruers:
“Unencumbered data flows are crucial to sustaining the multi-trillion dollar transatlantic economic partnership. We appreciate the Senate Commerce Committee’s attention to ensuring that practical, sustainable mechanisms are available to transfer data between the U.S. and Europe. Data transfers upon first glance sound like an obscure technical issue – until people realize how necessary they are to a wide range of digital and data-enable products, services, and routine business operations. Data transfers affect our ability to safely and routinely use banking, tele-health, and e-commerce which have become so integral to our daily lives.
“A lack of legal clarity over internet data transfers could disrupt a significant segment of the economy, especially to small and medium-sized enterprises. As companies move more operations online to responsibly operate amid the pandemic, a data lockdown would pose heightened risks to the economic recovery.”