EU officials visit US to begin first review of the Privacy Shield

The Privacy Shield has been operational since the summer of 2016. It allows US businesses to transfer personal data from the EU to the US where they self-certify their compliance with a set of privacy principles. More than 2,400 companies have signed up to the scheme to-date.

To begin the first annual review of how the Privacy Shield is operating, a delegation from the EU, including justice commissioner Vera Jourová, has travelled to the US. There, they are due to meet with representatives from US authorities such as the US Department of Commerce, as well as businesses.

A report containing the European Commission's "assessment" following the review will be published "in the coming weeks", the Commission said in a statement. Reuters said that the report will be released in October.

Earlier this year, an EU privacy watchdog said it could issue its own report into the EU-US Privacy Shield following the conclusion of the first annual review into the framework, despite the fact it will be given a chance to feed comments into the Commission's official post-review report.

The Article 29 Working Party said its decision to publish a separate report will depend on "the outcome of the joint review and the report of the Commission". The Working Party is a committee made up of representatives from data protection authorities based across the EU.

The Working Party has raised concerns about aspects of the Privacy Shield on a number of occasions, including in relation to protections against bulk processing of EU citizens' data by US authorities and the independence of a new ombudsperson which is to be tasked with handling complaints relating to the accessing of EU citizens' personal data by US intelligence agencies.

According to a report by the Financial Times, however, the US has yet to fill the ombudsperson role. Jourová has said she will ask the US government to confirm when the position will be filled, the report said.

In a statement, the White House said the US' commitment to the Privacy Shield "cannot be stronger", and that the framework itself "has noticeably improved transatlantic data protection practices".

"Programs like the Privacy Shield and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Cross-Border Privacy Rules system enable the free flow of information, which sustains the nearly $1 trillion dollars in goods and services trade across the Atlantic, and even more around the globe," the White House said. "We look forward to a successful annual review and the continuation of our constructive partnership with the European Union on the Privacy Shield framework."