This morning, on October 7, 2022, The White House Briefing Room issued a press release announcing President Biden's Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities.
This latest Executive Order, which details the steps that the United States will take in order to implement the U.S. commitments under a European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (“EU-U.S. DPF”), follows on the heels of the March 2022 announcement by President Biden and European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, of the commitment to a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework.
Today’s Executive Order focuses particularly on:
- Requiring signals intelligence activities to be conducted only following a determination, based on a reasonable assessment of all relevant factors, that the activities are necessary to advance a validated intelligence priority;
- Requiring the Intelligence Community to establish and apply policies and procedures to minimize the dissemination and retention of personal information collected through signals intelligence;
- Requiring the Director of National Intelligence to work with the Civil Liberties Protection Officer of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (CLPO) on an assessment of validated intelligence priorities;
- Establishing a redress mechanism to review qualifying complaints; and
- Establishing a Data Protection Review Court that will impartially review the determinations made by the CLPO with respect to whether a covered violation occurred and the appropriate remediation in the event that there was such a violation.
The White House states that today’s Executive Order will provide the European Commission with a basis to adopt a new adequacy determination. In July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued its judgment in the Schrems II case, invalidating the previous Privacy Shield framework that was in place.
Octillo will continue to monitor and provide further guidance as work on a new EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework progresses. If you have questions regarding this development, reach out to a member of our team.
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