The official group of the EU’s data protection authorities, the Article 29 Working Party, issued a statement on the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield on Tuesday. Though they commend the European Commission and U.S. Department of Commerce, the group still has concerns, particularly with regard to a lack of clarity on automatic decisions in the commercial sector and access by government authorities to EU citizens’ data. “The first joint annual review will therefore be a key moment for the robustness and efficiency of the Privacy Shield mechanisms to be further assessed,” the document states. Significantly, WP29 said the results of the first joint review “regarding access by U.S. public authorities to data transferred under the Privacy Shield may also impact transfer tools such as Binding Corporate Rules and Standard Contractual Clauses.” The group said in the intervening year it will commit to “proactively and independently assist data subjects” and work to provide guidelines to data controllers as to their obligations under Shield.
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