Dive Brief:
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French civil liberties campaign group La Quadrature du Net filed a legal challenge to Privacy Shield, the EU-U.S. commercial data agreement, according to a Computerworld report.
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The group wants to annul Privacy Shield, claiming it does not contain sufficient privacy protections.
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The Privacy Shield allows individuals or companies to challenge the pact in court if they feel it does not adequately protect European Union citizens’ data.
Dive Insight:
The Privacy Shield — the new rules for transferring European Union citizens' personal information to the U.S. — was officially adopted July 12 by EU and U.S. officials. It mandates that U.S. companies offer stronger protection for Europeans' personal data and also requires the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission, in cooperation with European Data Protection Authorities, to monitor and enforce data privacy violations.
Another group, Digital Rights Ireland, filed a similar suit in September, though news of the filing was just released last week.
La Quadrature did not offer comment.
Both organizations must now prove that Privacy Shield is "of direct and individual concern" to it. Lawyers say that won’t be easy. The original version of The Privacy Shield, introduced in February, was reworked to add additional privacy protections for EU citizens before being formally adopted over the summer.