According to insiders, the United States and the European Union are making progress in joint consultation on data privacy regulations. This is according to the Wall Street Journal.

In These conversations Both sides are trying to resolve the conflict between European data privacy law and the purpose of American and US intelligence law so that data can be moved between the two regions without any problems.

Conflict between mutual laws and regulations

At the heart of the conflict is the conflict between European data privacy law on the one hand and US intelligence law on the other. These contradict each other and can prevent free movement of data from companies.

It is mainly about storing data on European individuals in data centers located in the United States. Under European GDPR law, companies cannot simply release this data for espionage purposes. U.S. law allows intelligence agencies to request this information without further ado.

The latest European case law

A recent ruling by the European Court of Justice shows that European personal data processing companies cannot send it to US data centers. This is because EU residents in the United States cannot object to the US government viewing their data.

Implications for technology companies

For example, this ruling has major repercussions for large technology companies such as Facebook and Google. In Ireland, where EU headquarters are located, Facebook recently received a warning from an Irish privacy regulator that it should stop storing personal data on US soil. In Portugal, too, the National Statistics Office had to stop processing some data because it uses CloudFlare’s data centers in the United States.

It remains to be seen what the outcome of the talks will be. If the United States wants to meet the EU in this area, US law will probably need to be amended. Experts told The Wall Street Journal that it was not going to happen anytime soon.