WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States is in contact with other countries on establishing a data protection mechanism similar to the EU-US Privacy Shield launched a few months ago, Counselor to Commerce Secretary with the Delegated Duties of Undersecretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs told Sputnik.
"There are definitely engagements with other countries now that we’re moving forward with talking about some version of the privacy issue," Justin Antonipillai said on Wednesday.
Antonipillai did not specify the countries the United States is having discussions with.
"There are a lot of countries that have reached out to do something similar, and we have and will be willing to have those conversations as need be," he stated. "I think it will be whether and when there’s a real forcing function that requires it that will move these discussions forward."
The new EU-US data transfer pact replaces the previous Safe Harbour accord, which was struck down in October 2015 by the European Court of Justice due to concerns about intrusive US surveillance.
The Privacy Shield agreement has been signed by more than 500 companies, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
