EU Privacy Chief Sees Progress in U.S. Data Protection Stance

The U.S. has taken a strong, new approach to safeguarding the data of European citizens, European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiorowski said at a Thursday briefing. For a long time, there seemed to be no change in access by U.S. intelligence services to personal data, but now there's progress Wiewiorowski said he didn't expect. The EDPS still has some concerns, he said, but they can be addressed in the review of the new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and he sees no obstacles to the use of the European Commission's (draft) adequacy decision allowing trans-Atlantic data flows (see 2212130040). Asked whether he's disappointed about how the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR) is being enforced against Big Tech, Wiewiorowski said he's not but believes there's room for improvement. The Irish Data Protection Commission issued decisions against several companies, such as WhatsApp (see 2301190005) and Meta (see 2301040014) and 2211290001), but these haven't received responses from complainants or the European Data Protection Board, he said. The next step could be a discussion on expanding the board's role since many issues are cross-border, Wiewiorowski said. This year is the GDPR's fifth anniversary, he noted.