If you rely on an open, global internet, you'll want the European Union and the United States government to quickly agree on a new data framework to keep the services you rely on operational. Data flows are becoming increasingly important for everything from online buying, travel, and shipping to office collaboration, customer management, and security operations. The ability to share information underpins global economies and powers a range of services like high-value manufacturing, media, and information services. And over the next decade, these services will contribute hundreds of billion euros to Europe’s economy alone.
However, those data flows, convenience, and economic rewards are all under threat. Last week, Austria's data protection regulator concluded that a local online publisher's installation of Google Analytics did not provide an acceptable degree of protection, citing the possibility that US national security authorities may access user data. But Google has offered Analytics-related services to global businesses for more than 15 years and in all that time has never once received the type of demand the DPA speculated about. And we don't expect to receive one because such a demand would be unlikely to fall within the narrow scope of the relevant law.
The European Court of Justice's judgement in July 2020 did not set an inflexible threshold under which the mere chance of data exposure to another nation compelled a halt to global data flow. We are certain that the comprehensive additional measures we provide to our clients assure practical and effective data protection to any acceptable standard.
While this decision directly affects only one publisher and its specific circumstances, it may foreshadow larger issues. If a theoretical risk of data access were sufficient to stymie data flows, it would endanger many web publishers and small businesses, as well as highlight the lack of legal stability for international data flows confronting the entire European and American business ecosystem.
Businesses in both Europe and the United States are looking to the European Commission and the United States Department of Commerce to negotiate a successor agreement to the Privacy Shield that will address these challenges as soon as possible. Companies and civic society have both been supportive of evidence-based reforms. The stakes are too high — and international trade between Europe and the U.S. too important to the livelihoods of millions of people — to fail at finding a prompt solution to this imminent problem.
We firmly welcome an agreement and have long advocated for appropriate regulations controlling government access to user data. We have long fought for more government openness, legal procedures, and surveillance reform. We were the first major company to create a Transparency Report on government requests for user data, were founding members of the Global Network Initiative and the Reform Government Surveillance coalition, and support the OECD’s workstream on government access to data. At this juncture, we urge both governments to take a flexible and aligned approach to resolving this important issue.
We are dedicated to keeping the highest standards of data privacy in all of our products while the governments conclude a deal, and we are focused on addressing the requirements of our customers as we wait for a new agreement. However, we encourage immediate action to reestablish a workable framework that respects privacy while also promoting prosperity.
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