Press Release: EU-US Safe Harbor Essential To Leading European Companies. The Future of Privacy Forum has conducted a study of the US-EU Safe Harbor program run by the United States Department of Commerce and has documented that more than 150 European companies are active Safe Harbor participants.
Recently, some European policymakers have called for an end to the Safe Harbor program, while others have called for the program to be improved. FPF believes that simply terminating the program would have negative consequences for data protection and for companies and consumers not only in the United States, but in Europe as well. FPF has previously noted the consequences of termination for those European employees who rely on the Safe Harbor program for the processing of their human resources data.¹ FPF’s new study reveals that termination would adversely impact many leading European companies as well. To date, 152² active Safe Harbor member companies are headquartered or co-headquartered in European countries.
Statement on CJEU Decision Invalidating the Safe Harbor. This morning, the European Court of Justice invalidated the U.S.
-EU Safe Harbor, the mechanism by which thousands of companies lawfully transfer data across the Atlantic. The ruling comes in response to criticism about U.S. government surveillance practices and presents a new hurdle for trans-Atlantic data protection. “Today’s decision puts the Safe Harbor in the hands of individual data regulators in each country, who can now determine on their own how to proceed. Those regulators should understand that European employees of US companies are paid based on the ability to transfer global human resources information to the US.