Press Release: Data protection: Commission adopts decisions recognising adequacy of regimes in US, Switzerland and Hungary

On 27.7.00, the European Commission adopted a Decision determining that an arrangement put in place by the US Department of Commerce known as the'safe harbor' provides adequate protection for personal data transferred from the EU. At the same time, the Commission has adopted similar Decisions concerning Switzerland and Hungary. The 'safe harbor' arrangement, which as a result of this Decision will be fully up and running by November 2000, is the fruit or more than two years of dialogue between the Commission and the US Department of Commerce. The dialogue was launched to head-off the possibility that data transfers to the US might be blocked following the entry into force in 1998 of the EU's Data Protection Directive, which provides that personal data can only be transferred to third countries providing 'adequate protection'. Under the 'safe harbor', US companies can voluntarily adhere to a set of data protection principles recognised by the Commission as providing adequate protection and thus meet the requirements of the Directive as regards transfers of data out of the EU.

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