Article 31 Committee Plans Friday Vote on Privacy Shield; EC Official Touts Agreement

The Article 31 Committee of representatives from EU member states plans a Friday vote on Privacy Shield, said a European Commission summary of a committee meeting last week. In the brief summary, the EC said "various improvements" during negotiations the week before with the U.S. (see 1606270055) to the proposed trans-Atlantic data transfer deal were explained to committee members. Several members wanted more time to study the changes before voting Friday, the summary said. Bruno Gencarelli, head of EU Data Protection Unit, told attendees Tuesday at an international privacy conference in the U.K. that the proposed trans-Atlantic data transfer deal would be voted on "this week, and, following a positive vote, the [European] Commission would subsequently be able to adopt an adequacy decision for EU-US data transfers next week," according to a summary of his talk provided by the conference. He said the changes to Privacy Shield include strong data retention and transfer rules, plus government access to the data. "We are moving from self-certification to a much more controlled framework," said Gencarelli. Several other European entities criticized Privacy Shield as providing inadequate protection for Europeans' personal data from U.S. government access and inadequate redress options (see 1605310017). Experts expect a court challenge to the agreement if the EC approves it.