Privacy Shield Aims to Protect Economic Interests at Expense of Personal Privacy

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The US-EU Privacy Shield mechanism goes into effect on Monday. Under the agreement, data belonging to Europeans and held by US companies will be subject to the same strict privacy safeguards as under EU law. The Privacy Shield is the successor to the Safe Harbor agreement, which was struck down by the European Union in October 2015 for failing to prevent the US government from gaining routine access to European citizens’ data.

"Privacy Shield is a huge confidence trick. It attempts to protect economic interests at the expense of personal privacy. The system maximises the flow of TransAtlantic data without the protections that Europe would demand from other countries. It is no better than the now discredited and unlawful Safe Harbour agreement. The difference is all in the branding," Davies said.

The Safe Harbor agreement was nixed against the backdrop of the former NSA employee Edward Snowden's leaks, which revealed extensive US spying on European allies, and widespread collaboration between US tech companies and the NSA.

"There is absolutely no doubt that after its implementation in August, legal challenges will be mounted against Privacy Shield. These challenges will most likely be successful because the very basis of this arrangement is unstable," Davies added.

The draft resolution of the EU-US Privacy Shield was presented by the European Commission in late February. The European Parliament adopted the resolution on May 26.