{"id":971,"date":"2020-09-24T11:09:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-24T09:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendly.is\/en\/?p=971"},"modified":"2023-08-15T09:20:19","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T07:20:19","slug":"privacy-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/privacy-shield","title":{"rendered":"USA Does Not Provide Adequate Protection for Data From Switzerland and the EU: What Does This Mean for Companies, and What Solutions Are Available?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The USA currently do not offer an adequate level of protection for data from the EU and Switzerland. In this article we analyze the legal situation and evaluate possible solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">European Court of Justice Rules &#8220;Privacy Shield&#8221; Agreement Invalid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The change in case law is the result of <a href=\"https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2020\/08\/27\/the-end-of-privacy-shield-why-it-matters-and-what-businesses-can-do-about-it\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a ruling by the European Court of Justice<\/a> (ECJ) in July, in which the judges declared the &#8220;Privacy Shield&#8221; agreement between the EU and the USA to be invalid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reasoning was quite clear: American surveillance practice is not limited to the absolutely necessary measure. Moreover, those affected cannot enforce their rights in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">ECJ Ruling Also Applicable To Switzerland<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The ruling initially only affected the EU. Following an in-depth analysis, the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.admin.ch\/gov\/en\/start\/documentation\/media-releases.msg-id-80318.html\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">also joined the EU judges<\/a> in their verdict after an in-depth analysis. Adrian Lobsiger sees no difference in interpretation between EU law and Swiss law in this regard (here his <a href=\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/02\/FDPIC-policy-paper-privacy-shield-64261.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">detailed opinion as PDF<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order for companies from the EU or Switzerland to be allowed to continue transferring data to the USA, they need so-called standard contract clauses (SCC). But even then, risks remain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Standard Contract Clauses Fail To Safeguard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the ECJ, the standard contractual clauses <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dataprotectionreport.com\/2020\/07\/schrems-ii-landmark-ruling-privacy-shield-is-invalid-standard-contractual-clauses-are-valid-but-court-puts-obligations-on-parties-and-authorities\/#:~:text=While%20Privacy%20Shield%20has%20been,when%20they%20can%20be%20used.\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">are still lawful<\/a>, but only if exporters and recipients of the data can guarantee a level of data protection as high as in the EU. The problem: data that ends up at suppliers in the USA are subject to the surveillance laws there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The transfer of data to US companies under the standard contractual clauses can therefore de facto not function in accordance with the ECJ decision because US data protection laws are much more lax than European ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For this reason, Max Schrems&#8217; NGO is currently <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2020\/08\/18\/eu-websites-use-of-google-analytics-and-facebook-connect-targeted-by-post-schrems-ii-privacy-complaints\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suing 101 companies in the EU<\/a> that continue to transfer data to the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Possible Solutions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A) Encryption<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the current legal situation, one solution seems to be an end-to-end encryption of sensitive data with a strong algorithm. This would ensure effective protection of the data even when it is transferred to the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, this requires increased technological competence on the part of the companies exporting data. And: it is only a matter of time until <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/the-race-to-save-encryption-11559646737\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">every encryption will be broken<\/a> by more powerful computers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">B) Local Hosting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The safest way is to transfer as little data as possible to the USA. This is why you should regularly check where services you use store their data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For <a href=\"https:\/\/friendly.is\/en\/#products\">our tools at Friendly<\/a>, <strong>we host all data exclusively on dedicated servers in Switzerland or in Germany \/ EU<\/strong> (your choice).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The USA currently do not offer an adequate level of protection for data from the EU and Switzerland. In this article we analyze the legal situation and evaluate&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"coauthors":[12],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/privacy-shield-cancelled.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Stefan Vetter","author_link":"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/team\/stefan"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v22.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>USA Does Not Provide Adequate Protection for Data From Switzerland and the EU: What Does This Mean for Companies, and What Solutions Are Available? - Friendly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/privacy-shield\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"USA Does Not Provide Adequate Protection for Data From Switzerland and the EU: What Does This Mean for Companies, and What Solutions Are Available?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The USA currently do not offer an adequate level of protection for data from the EU and Switzerland. In this article we analyze the legal situation and evaluate&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/privacy-shield\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Friendly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FriendlyDotCH\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-24T09:09:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-15T07:20:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/privacy-shield-cancelled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stefan Vetter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/privacy-shield-cancelled.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@FriendlyDotCH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@FriendlyDotCH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stefan Vetter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/privacy-shield#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/privacy-shield\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Stefan Vetter\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/5216afaacc97461578a40003257562e1\"},\"headline\":\"USA Does Not Provide Adequate Protection for Data From Switzerland and the EU: What Does This Mean for Companies, and What Solutions Are Available?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-24T09:09:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-15T07:20:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/privacy-shield\"},\"wordCount\":457,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/privacy-shield#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/09\/privacy-shield-cancelled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Privacy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/privacy-shield\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/friendly.ch\/en\/privacy-shield\",\"name\":\"USA Does Not Provide Adequate Protection for Data From Switzerland and the EU: What Does This Mean for Companies, and What Solutions Are Available? 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