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Congressional Research Service
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Updated August 9, 2019


EU Data Protection Rules and U.S. Implications


Data Privacy and Protection in the
United States and Europe
U.S. and European Union (EU) policymakers are focusing
on protection of personal data with new and proposed
legislation and enforcement actions. Data breaches at
companies such as Facebook, Google, and Marriott have
contributed to heightened public awareness. The EU's
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)-which took
effect on May 25, 2018-has drawn the attention of U.S.
businesses and other stakeholders, prompting debate on
U.S. federal and state data privacy and protection policies.

Both the United States and the 28-member EU assert that
they are committed to upholding individual privacy rights
and ensuring the protection of personal data, including
electronic data. However, data privacy and protection issues
have long been sticking points in U.S.-EU economic and
security relations, in part because of differences in U.S. and
EU legal regimes and approaches to data privacy. The
GDPR highlights some of those differences and poses
challenges for U.S. companies doing business in the EU.

The United States does not broadly restrict cross-border
data flows and has traditionally regulated privacy at a
sectoral level to cover certain types of data. The EU
considers the privacy of communications and the protection
of personal data to be fundamental rights, which are
codified in EU law. Europe's history with fascist and
totalitarian regimes informs the EU's views on data
protection and contributes to the demand for strict data
privacy controls. The EU regards current U.S. data
protection safeguards as inadequate; this has complicated
the conclusion of U.S.-EU information-sharing agreements
and raised concerns about U.S.-EU data flows.

The transatlantic economy is the largest in the world, with
goods and services trade of $1.2 trillion in 2018. U.S.-EU
trade of information and communications technology (ICT)
services and potentially ICT-enabled services was over
$307 billion in 2017 (see Figure 1).

Figure I. U.S.-EU Trade of ICT and Potentially ICT-
Enabled (PICTE) Services


                         S190B
                     U.S. Ex:portsto E



                     EU Exports to U.S
  $72B US surplus in ICTIPCTE serves trade
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis interactive data Table 3.3.


What Is the GDPR.
The GDPR establishes a set of rules for the protection of
personal data throughout the EU. It seeks to strengthen
individual fundamental rights and facilitate business by
ensuring more consistent implementation of data protection
rules EU-wide. The EU hopes the GDPR will further
develop the EU Digital Single Market (DSM), aimed at
increasing harmonization across the bloc on digital policies.

The GDPR identifies what is a legitimate basis for data
processing and sets out common rules for data retention,
storage limitation, and record keeping. The GDPR applies
to (1) all businesses and organizations with an EU
establishment that process (perform operations on) personal
data of individuals (or data subjects) in the EU, regardless
of where the actual processing of the data takes place; and
(2) entities outside the EU that offer goods or services (for
payment or for free) to individuals in the EU or monitor the
behavior of individuals in the EU. Processing certain
sensitive personal data is generally prohibited.

Stronger and new data protection requirements in the
GDPR grant individuals the right to:
* Receive clear and understandable information about
   who is processing one's personal data and why;
* Consent affirmatively to any data processing;
* Access any personal data collected;
* Rectify inaccurate personal data;
* Erase one's personal data, cease further dissemination of
   the data, and potentially have third parties halt
   processing of the data (the right to be forgotten');
* Restrict or object to certain processing of one's data;
* Be notified without undue delay of a data breach if
   there is a high risk of harm to the data subject; and
* Require the transmission of one's data to another
   controller (data portability).
The potential high penalties for noncompliance have
attracted significant attention, since a company or
organization can be fined up to 4% of its annual global
turnover or E20 million (whichever is greater). Fines are
assessed by the national supervisory authority (a Data
Protection Authority, or DPA) in each member state and
subject to appeal in national courts. The GDPR also
requires some companies to hire data protection officers.

GDPR: Year One
Many U.S. firms have made changes to comply with the
GDPR, such as revising and clarifying user terms of
agreement and asking for explicit consent. While it creates
more requirements on companies that collect or process
data, some experts contend that the GDPR may simplify


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