Late last week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross met with EU Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip to discuss the future of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. Reuters reports that Ross "confirmed his support for the crucial pillars" of the framework, and Ansip tweeted that he and Ross had agreed "on the need for robust and predictable #PrivacyShield for safe and secure U.S.-EU data flows." This was the first time the EU had officially met with the new commerce secretary. A recent executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump has sowed fears among officials in Brussels and companies on both sides of the Atlantic that new U.S. policies could undermine the tenuous agreement reached last year by the Obama administration and the European Commission. In other news involving global data flows, privacy lawyer Max Schrems presented his arguments against the legality of standard contractual clauses last week in Ireland's High Court, saying U.S. government promises involving surveillance and EU citizens' privacy rights are "ephemeral." 
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