Europe's data protection bodies will meet on February 2 to discuss solutions to the data-transfer void left when Safe Harbour was ruled invalid by EU's Court of Justice in October.
Regulators hope to strike an agreement in February on a replacement to the U.S.-European data transfer agreement that the European court struck down. The decision set off an international data-sharing dilemma for global companies, cloud computing companies, service providers, and others.
The situation would become more urgent if negotiations between U.S. and European extend beyond the end of this month. EU privacy regulators granted companies a deadline to create alternative solutions for transfer of customers' data. The grace period expires this month.
“I'm optimistic that we're going to be able to find a solution to this, I'm hoping by the end of this month,” said Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairwoman Edith Ramirez last week, at the tech conference CES. “But we're well on our way I think to doing that.”
Wojciech Wiewiorowski, the Assistant European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Belgium, made similar comments in November at Information Security Solutions Europe (ISSE 2015) in Berlin.
“Organizations should now start thinking about how to give their customers more control over their personal data in order to form trusted digital relationships, wrote Eve Maler, vice president of innovation and emerging technology for ForgeRock, in an email obtained by SCMagazine.com. “This is even more time-sensitive for U.S.-based enterprises and government organizations with ties to Europe.”