The New U.S. / E.U. Privacy Shield

On February 2, 2016, negotiators from the United States Federal Trade Commission and the European Union announced that they had agreed to in principle to a 'Privacy Shield' which will replace the safe harbor agreement that was invalidated in the Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner decision announced this past October. See the tip of the night for October 11, 2015. A representative for the European Commission stated that the United States had provided assurances that it would not conduct "indiscriminate mass surveillance" of Europeans. See an article on Bloomberg.com about the new shield. The text of the agreement has not yet been made available. An ombudsman within in the State Department will exist to address cases concerning the access of national security organizations and law enforcements bodies to private data.