Politico, December 4, 2020

By Steven Overly and Mark Scott

Specifically, [the US and Europe] need to revamp a now-defunct data protection agreement that’s critical to how global companies from Google to General Electric operate. The previous pact, the so-called US-EU Privacy Shield, was struck down by Europe's highest court in July, which ruled that American privacy standards do not adequately protect EU data — everything from people’s social media search histories to companies’ payroll information.

“It's an urgent matter because so much of our economy and the European economy relies on the ability to be able to transfer data seamlessly,” said Aaron Cooper, the vice president of global policy at BSA | The Software Alliance, a tech industry group.

Despite questions about the political will of US policymakers, Cooper at BSA | The Software Alliance sees sufficient support among Democrats and Republicans to hammer out a deal that can enhance and salvage the Privacy Shield.

“This has been one of the few truly bipartisan issues that has spanned both of the last two administrations and so I expect that the Biden administration will be able to come in and pick up on some of the work that [the Trump administration] has been doing,” Cooper said.

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Original Posting: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/04/us-eu-relations-data-privacy-442773