EU-US Privacy Shield: restoring faith in data flows and transatlantic relations

UPDATE - Monday, September 26: The U.S. Department of Commerce has now formally approved Google's certification to the Privacy Shield as fully compliant and our certification can be viewed on the Privacy Shield list.

UPDATE - Monday 29th August: Today Google signed up for the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, submitting our certification to the U.S. Department of Commerce for approval. We are committed to applying the protections of the Privacy Shield to personal data transferred between Europe and the United States. In the blog we posted on July 12 (below), we detail why the Privacy Shield is an important achievement. We welcome the legal certainty that it brings.

Ever since the European Court of Justice invalidated the EU-US Safe Harbor Agreement in October 2015, businesses on both sides of the Atlantic have faced confusion about the future of transatlantic data transfers -- often transfers that are vital to the routine functioning of their operations. And much ink has been spilled about the complexity of the negotiations required to break the impasse and the resulting tensions in transatlantic relations.


On 12 July, 2016, as the final step in a long process of approvals, the European Commission adopted the new EU-US Privacy Shield. We applaud this achievement, which demonstrates that the EU and the US share important values and are able to work together to protect the fundamental right to privacy.

Following the agreement, we will ensure that our products and services meet the new standards of the Privacy Shield. And, building on our work with Europe’s Data Protection Authorities over the last few years, we’re also choosing to co-operate with Europe’s Data Protection Authorities on EU-US Privacy Shield inquiries.

As a company operating on both sides of the Atlantic, we welcome the legal certainty the Privacy Shield brings. Restoring trust -- in international data flows and in the Transatlantic Digital Agenda -- is crucial to continued growth in the digital economy.

Posted by: Caroline Atkinson, Head of Global Public Policy, Google