U.S. and EU reach critical data-transfer agreement

Today, negotiators from the U.S. and EU reached a new data-transfer agreement, entitled the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. The framework will allow companies to transfer user data back and forth across the Atlantic. In response to the announcement, ACT | The App Association Executive Director Morgan Reed released the following statement:

The United States and European Union are inextricably connected. The two economies comprise about half of the world GDP, and nearly a third of global trade.

Nowhere is that symbiotic relationship more apparent than in the $120 billion app economy. The industry that has revolutionized how we work, play, and manage our health provides services to hundreds of millions of customers on both sides of the Atlantic.

This relationship hinges on the trust between two trading partners, and today that trust is on its way to being restored with the new EU-U.S. Privacy Shield. App makers that relied on the now defunct Safe Harbor are thankful for the tireless efforts from Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to reach a new deal.