EU Advisory Body Worried About Sweeping Data Collection Under Deal With US

EU data protection authorities are concerned about the possibility of indiscriminate data collection by the United States under the EU-US deal on data transfer, the chair of the EU body representing the bloc's data protection agencies said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On February 2, Brussels and Washington agreed on a framework transfer deal regulating the flow of data across the Atlantic, called Privacy Shield.

"The possibility is left in the shield for bulk collection, which – if massive and indiscriminate – is not acceptable," Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, the chair of the Article 29 Working Party that represents 28 EU data protection agencies, was quoted by The Financial Times as saying.

According to the newspaper, EU regulators also have doubts regarding the independence of a US ombudsman that is expected to address EU complaints about US surveillance practices.

The EU-US Privacy Shield replaces the 2000 Safe Harbor, which the European Court of Justice invalidated in October as it was considered to provide inadequate personal data protection.

Civil society groups say: #PrivacyShield is not enough — renegotiation is needed #safeharbor https://t.co/XnQH8LBUTt pic.twitter.com/DPV1xMkgwJ

— EDRi (@edri) March 16, 2016

​The Article 29 Working Party said in early February it would hold off the enforcement of the agreement until mid-to-late April.

The first annual review of the EU-US Privacy Shield is expected in 2017.