The following statement can be attributed to Chris Mohr, President and Paul Lekas, Senior Vice President, Global Policy, Software & Information Industry Association.
SIIA commends President Biden and the U.S. government team for today’s executive order to formalize the agreement between the United States and the European Union on transatlantic data transfers. The flow of data between the United States and E.U. is essential to businesses of all sizes and across a wide range of industries serving an incredibly diverse array of beneficial information and technology services. Since the European Court of Justice Decision in Schrems II, those data flows have been burdened while the issues raised by that case were resolved. Those burdens have been especially heavy for small and medium-sized businesses.
The Administration’s action is an essential first step to lifting that burden to the benefit of all of our members – many of whom are SMEs – along with more than 5,000 companies on both sides of the Atlantic. The EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, as reflected in the executive order and new Department of Justice regulations, will reinforce responsible data protection practices and provide businesses and consumers more certainty and clarity in the significant portion of day-to-day global operations that are impacted by data flows across the Atlantic. We believe that the combination of the protection of existing law combined with the state and individual-based mechanisms in the Framework fully address the concerns raised by the European Court of Justice in its Schrems II decision.
SIIA looks forward to working with EU and U.S. officials to implement the terms of the Data Privacy Framework. While the new framework is a significant achievement, we believe that Congress should continue its work to enact a comprehensive federal privacy law with a national standard that meaningfully balances consumer protections and safeguards with business compliance.
