Trade Agreements Could Weaken EU Privacy, Data Protection Rights, Study Says

The EU isn't sufficiently protecting its own citizens' personal data and privacy rights in trade agreements, said a study commissioned by the European consumer alliance BEUC, Center for Digital Democracy, European Digital Rights and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD). The study, by University of Amsterdam's Institute for Information Law, released Wednesday, said existing free-trade agreements like the General Agreement of Trade in Services and ones being negotiated like the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) could challenge and potentially loosen EU privacy rules. CDD Executive Director Jeff Chester said in a joint news release Wednesday that the U.S. is pushing for an "unprecedented expansion of commercial data collection, threatening both consumers and citizens." He said companies like Facebook and Google want to use agreements like TTIP as a "digital 'Trojan Horse' that effectively sidesteps the EU’s human-rights-based data protection safeguards." TACD Senior Policy Adviser Anna Fielder said "the EU’s opaque and inconsistent system of granting third countries so-called ‘adequacy’ status for transferring personal data of its citizens makes it vulnerable to legal challenge by trade partners ... The EU must not make some partners more equal than others when deciding on the adequacy of their data protection laws." Study recommendations include "no direct effect" clauses in deals as a way to essentially stop challenges to privacy standards and having the European Data Protection Supervisor or the European Court of Justice provide opinions on proposed agreements.