EU–US Privacy Shield

One of the most controversial parts of the GDPR is the so-called Privacy Shield, which followed the Safe Harbor, and has since been invalidated by the Schrems II judgments.

Brief summary

Following Edward Snowden’s 2013 revelations of Facebook and other US service providers’ participation in the US government’s PRISM mass surveillance program, Austrian activist Maximillian Schrems filed a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (the complaint was filed in Ireland because it is Facebook’s European headquarters) arguing the unlawful processing of your personal data, which would have been transferred to the United States and subjected to the massive control of the US government authorities, along with the data of millions of other individuals. This would have been eased by the 2000 EU Commission-approved Safe Harbor agreement, which permitted the unfettered flow of personal data between the EU and the US, under...