Clifford Chance

Next steps after U.S. President Biden issues executive order on U.S. data transfers from 'Qualified States'

27 October 2022

On 7 October 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order "On Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities" (the Order) to effectuate the preliminary agreement between U.S. President Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for facilitating trans-Atlantic data flows. 

The Order aims to address concerns raised by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the 'Schrems II' decision of 16 July 2020, which invalidated the previous EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (for additional background, see our more detailed briefing: US and EU Agree on Framework for Privacy Shield Replacement).  In particular, the Order adds additional safeguards and redress mechanisms for persons in certain qualifying countries or regional economic integration organizations to protect and preserve privacy rights and civil liberties in relation to data collection practices and procedures of the U.S. intelligence community.

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