Doomed Data Transfer Pact Must Be Honored, FTC’s Simons Says (1)

Companies must live up to promises made under a now-invalidated EU-U.S. data transfer agreement or face possible enforcement, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons told a Senate panel.

“It’s a problem” if companies don’t keep the promises under the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, Simons said. “We are going to enforce” if companies don’t keep them, he said.

The EU’s top court invalidated the cross-border data transfer pact last month, over concerns about protections for European citizens and U.S. surveillance activities. But the over 5,000 companies that used the program will have to uphold European-style data protections for the information that was ...