The pending proposal from the European Commission for revision of the EU Directive (expected in early 2012) raises questions about the efficacy under a revised Directive of the EU-US Safe Harbor framework, which permits the legal cross-border transfer of personal data from the EU to the US for companies enrolled in the Safe Harbor and committed to the requisite privacy protections. That’s the recent observation in Europolitics , the European Affairs daily:
It is not clear what impact a revamp of the EU and US data privacy legal frameworks would have on Safe Harbour. According to the Commerce Department official, “we have been assured by the European Commission that Safe Harbour will not be affected by changes in the Data Protection Directive”. The official adds, however, that they do have concerns about US firms lacking the clarity they need should new terms like ‘privacy by design’ and ‘right to be forgotten’ be introduced without their precise meaning being spelled out. A Commission proposal is due to be unveiled in early 2012.
The article goes on to speculate about and comment on pending US privacy legislation and its effect on cross-border transfers, concluding that passage of a new US law is not likely:
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