On March 23, 2017, the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE Committee) voted (29 to 25, with one abstention) in favor of a resolution declaring that the Privacy Shield is inadequate and still has key deficiencies that urgently need to be resolved. Among the identified deficiencies, LIBE pointed out the followings:
- the lack of specific rules on automated decision-making or the general right to object, and the lack of clear principles on how the Privacy Shield Principles apply to data processors,
- that “bulk surveillance” remain possible as regards national security and surveillance,
- that neither the Privacy Shield Principles nor letters from the US administration demonstrate the existence of effective judicial redress rights for individuals in the EU whose personal data are transferred to the US, and
- the Ombudsperson mechanism set up by the US Department of State is not sufficiently independent and is not vested with sufficient effective powers to carry out its duties.
The resolution is expected to be voted by Parliament as a whole in April.
The Civil Liberties Committee MEPs resolution press release (REF. 20170321IPR67934) is available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu…