EU court puts US-Swiss data-sharing deal at risk

The European Court of Justice’s decision to invalidate a deal allowing thousands of firms to transfer data between Europe and the United States could affect a bilateral data-sharing agreement between the US and Switzerland.  Under European privacy laws, companies are forbidden from transferring European citizens' personal data to countries deemed to have lower privacy standards. The “Safe Harbour” accord was introduced 15 years ago to allow firms to easily transfer personal data to the US without having to seek prior approval, a potentially long and expensive process.  On Tuesday the EU court concluded that European data held by US companies would not be safe from surveillance that would be deemed illegal in Europe. The court said Safe Harbour did not sufficiently protect EU citizens' personal data as American companies were “bound to disregard, without limitation” the privacy safeguards where they come into conflict with the national security, public interest and ...