EDPS and EDPB advise European Parliament on US CLOUD Act
04 october 2019
The US CLOUD Act gives US law enforcement authorities the power to request the disclosure of data by US service providers, regardless of where in the world this data is stored. Mindful of the possible implications of the Act for EU citizens, the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) wrote to both the EDPS and the EDPB requesting a legal assessment. Specifically, LIBE asked us to assess the impact of the US CLOUD Act on the EU’s legal framework for data protection and the mandate for negotiating an EU-US agreement on cross-border access to electronic evidence for judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
On 10 July 2019, the EDPB and the EDPS issued a joint response. This response outlined the opinion of both the EDPS and the EDPB that a comprehensive EU-US agreement on cross-border access to electronic evidence, with strong procedural and substantial safeguards for fundamental rights, would be the most appropriate way of ensuring the necessary level of protection for individuals living in the EU, as well as to provide legal certainty for businesses.
News archive