Biden’s Executive Order Tries to Bridge the Data Privacy Gap between the U.S. and the EU

On October 7, 2022, President Joseph Biden signed an Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities (E.O.) directing the steps that the U.S. will take to implement the U.S. commitments under the European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) announced by President Biden and European Commission President von der Leyen in March of 2022.   The goal of the order is to implement the framework to respond to the European Court of Justice (CJEU) Order in Schrems II (July 16, 2020), which found serious gaps in the way the U.S. protects personal data.  By upgrading the U.S. privacy shield and providing a multilayer redress mechanism with independent and binding authority for EU individuals to seek redress if they believe they are unlawfully targeted by U.S. intelligence activities, the U.S. is trying to implement the framework and respond to the gaps pointed out by the CJEU.[1]