Biden implements US, EU data privacy framework in new executive order News
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Biden implements US, EU data privacy framework in new executive order

US President Joe Biden Friday signed an executive order to implement a data privacy framework between the European Union and the US. The order on “Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities” outlines the steps the US will take to implement the privacy framework agreed upon in March after the EU Court of Justice terminated the previous Privacy Shield framework.

The Privacy Shield framework was developed to standardize privacy requirements for companies transferring personal economic data from the EU to the US. However, the Court of Justice found that the US lacked necessary safeguards for EU citizens and US surveillance programs did not have proper measures for EU citizens to address how the government used their data, if collected.

Friday’s executive order creates a mechanism for citizens to obtain “binding review and redress of claims that their personal information collected through U.S. signals intelligence was collected in violation of applicable U.S. law, including the enhanced safeguards of the E.O.” The order permits the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to determine if the order’s enhanced safeguards are violated and directs the Attorney General to establish a Data Protection Review Court in the Justice Department to review and redress those claims. In addition, the order directs the the US intelligence community to update their data collection procedures.

The order comes at the end of a busy week for Biden; the president traveled to Florida to support the Hurricane Ian relief efforts on Wednesday and pardoned all federal offenses of simple marijuana possession on Thursday.