Europe Must Rebuild Its Digital Safe Harbor

摘要

On Oct. 6, the European Court of Justice pulled the rug from under trans-Atlantic e-commerce. Since then, U.S. companies have remained confused about how to keep operating in Europe. Data protection authorities in Brussels offered little clarification beyond reminding the European Union and the U.S. of what's already obvious: A new e-commerce framework needs to be worked out as soon as possible. The court's landmark ruling invalidated a 15-year-old agreement known as Safe Harbor, which was an attempt to bridge differing approaches to data protection in Europe and the U.S. The ECJ said the data of Europeans were unsafe from U.S. government surveillance. Invalidating Safe Harbor was initially hailed by supporters as a victory for human rights and privacy. But it advances neither.