European Parliament OKs Resolution Listing Privacy Concerns With Privacy Shield

Concerned about U.S. government surveillance activities and sharing of private data, the European Parliament (EP) passed a resolution 306-240 directing the European Commission "to conduct a proper assessment" of Privacy Shield. "This resolution aims to ensure that the Privacy Shield stands the test of time and that it does not suffer from critical weaknesses," said EP Civil Liberties Committee Chairman Claude Moraes in a Thursday news release. He said there have been significant improvements over the invalidated safe harbor agreement, but problems remain that need to be "urgently resolved to provide legal certainty" for EU citizens and businesses. EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourová met with Trump administration officials about U.S. tasks and commitments to Privacy Shield (see 1703310003). The first review of the trans-Atlantic data sharing framework will occur in September. Parliament said it's concerned about new NSA rules that allow it to share intercepted private communications collected without a warrant or congressional authorization with 16 other intelligence agencies. The EP also pointed to the NSA and FBI directing Yahoo to conduct surveillance activities in 2015 (see 1610050038), a year after presidential policy directive 28 limited collection and processing of data. Other concerns Parliament cited include the recent repeal of FCC ISP privacy rules (see 1704040059), vacancies at the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (see 1612270051), the need for increased independence of the ombudsperson in the State Department (see 1703290015) and more effective judicial redress for EU citizens beyond the framework's principles and U.S. government letters.