As digitization increasingly shapes the scope of U.S. international trade, regulations and policies regarding cross-border data transfers carry significant economic implications. Yet—as the recent invalidation of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) demonstrates—trade, economic competitiveness, and free flows of data can come into tension with privacy and security protections. As the European Commission and European Data Protection Board apply the CJEU’s decision to alternative mechanisms for data transfers, countries around the world are working to update their data protection frameworks with eyes toward the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. Meanwhile, the European Commission and U.S. Department of Commerce are discussing a new framework to replace the Privacy Shield and ways to protect the privacy and security of personal information while deriving the economic and societal benefits of cross-border data flows.
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