The UK government on Thursday formalised an agreement authorising computer data transfers between the UK and the US from 12 October, following on from a similar agreement between Brussels and Washington.
This agreement will establish a “data bridge” with the US “through a UK extension” to the EU-US agreement, according to a document published on the UK government website on Thursday.
The government assured the public that the new regime would not undermine the level of data protection for data subjects in the UK.
The UK and US had announced in a statement in June that they had reached a commitment in principle to the agreement, which will allow “authorised US companies" to receive UK personal data.
The data transfer agreement adopted in July between the European Union and the United States, known as the Data Privacy Framework, is a crucial arrangement for the digital economy after rulings by European courts invalidated previous frameworks.
The most recent one, 'Privacy Shield,' was cancelled in 2020, ahead of the UK’s effective exit from the European Union in January 2021.
'Privacy Shield' as well as the previous arrangement had been the subject of appeals filed by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems in response to concerns about the protection of EU data transferred to the US, where it could be subject to surveillance by US intelligence services.
Schrems has already announced his wish to denounce a third agreement at the Court of Justice of the European Union, a procedure that will take several months.
