Cross-Border Transfers

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On February 24, 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) released the final version of the Measures on the Standard Contract for the Cross-border Transfer of Personal Information (“Measures”) (only available in Chinese here), including a template contract (“Standard Contract”) accompanying the Measures.  The Measures will take effect on June 1, 2023, but are subject to a 6-month grace period to allow companies time to bring their activities into compliance.

The finalization of the Measures marks another important step forward in the establishment of China’s cross-border data transfer framework.  With implementing rules for all three lawful transfer mechanisms now in place, China appears to be entering into a new phase where cross-border transfer activities will be more closely regulated and enforcement actions are more likely to arise for non-compliance. …

Continue Reading China Finalizes Standard Contract for Cross-Border Transfers of Personal Information

On December 14, 2022, the members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) (which includes various EU Member States, Mexico, Turkey, the UK and the United States) and the EU, adopted the Declaration on Government Access to Personal Data held by Private Sector Entities (“Declaration”). …

Continue Reading OECD and the EU adopt Declaration on Government Access to Personal Data

On December 13, 2022, the European Commission released its draft adequacy decision on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (“EU-U.S. DPF”), which, once formally adopted, would recognize that the United States ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the EU to organizations certified under the EU-U.S. DPF.  The draft decision follows the issuance of Executive Order 14086 on Enhancing Safeguards for U.S. Signals Intelligence Activities (“EO 14086”) by President Biden on October 7, 2022 (see our previous blog post here), and the political agreement reached between the EU and the U.S. in March 2022 (see our previous blog post here).

As many had expected, the draft adequacy decision assesses the limitations and safeguards relating to the collection and subsequent use of personal data transferred to controllers and processors in the United States by U.S. public authorities.  In particular, the draft decision assesses whether the conditions under which the U.S. government may access data transferred to the United States fulfill the “essential equivalence” test pursuant to Article 45(1) of the GDPR, as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) in Schrems II (see our previous blog post here). …

Continue Reading European Commission Releases Draft Adequacy Decision on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework

The upcoming date of December 27, 2022, marks the end of the roughly one year and a half-long transition period that companies had to replace any the old versions of the standard contractual clauses for international transfers of personal data by the new standard contractual clauses, which the European Commission adopted on June 4, 2021.  As of December 27, 2022, EU Supervisory Authorities may start GDPR enforcement proceedings against any companies that still on to the old version of the standard contractual clauses.

Covington is well placed to assisting clients in amending their contracts to take into account the new standard contractual clauses and, more generally, to ensure compliance with the GDPR rules on international data transfers.…

Continue Reading Countdown for Implementing the New EU Data Transfer Contracts and Overview of other EU Transfer Developments

On August 31, 2022, one day before the Measures for Security Assessment of Cross-border Data Transfer (“Measures”) were scheduled to take effect, the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) released a first edition of its guidance on how organizations should complete the security assessment application (“CAC Guidance”). Covington’s previous posts on the Measures can be found here.…

Continue Reading China Releases Guidance on Cross-border Data Transfer Security Assessment Application

On Episode 19 of Covington’s Inside Privacy Audiocast, Dan Cooper and and Yan Luo discuss the key provisions of China’s draft SCCs, compare the draft legislation with the GDPR, and talk through actions that companies should be considering in order to comply with the new cross-border data requirements.

This audiocast episode is repurposed from a…

In October 2019, the UK and U.S. Governments signed an agreement on cross-border law enforcement demands for data from Communication Service Providers (the “Agreement”, which we described in our earlier post here). Only now, however, have the two countries completed the procedural steps required to bring the Agreement into force. On July 21, 2022…

On June 30, 2022, the European Data Protection Board published draft guidelines on certification as a tool for transfers.  These guidelines complement the EDPB’s earlier guidelines on certification and identifying certification criteria.

These guidelines and the guidelines on codes of conduct as tools for transfers appear to be part of the EDPB’s broader response to the Schrems II decision issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”), which invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield framework.  The approval of certification schemes expands the toolbox available under Art. 46 GDPR for lawfully transferring personal data outside the EEA.…

Continue Reading European Data Protection Board Publishes Guidelines on Certification as a Tool for International Personal Data Transfers

After more than seven months since China’s Personal Information Protection Law (《个人信息保护法》, “PIPL”) went into effect, Chinese regulators have issued several new (draft) rules over the past few days to implement the cross-border data transfer requirements of the PIPL.  In particular, Article 38 of the PIPL sets out three legal mechanisms for lawful transfers of personal information outside of China, namely: (i) successful completion of a government-led security assessment, (ii) obtaining certification under a government-authorized certification scheme, or (iii) implementing a standard contract with the party(-ies) outside of China receiving the data.  The most recent developments in relation to these mechanisms concern the standard contract and certification.…

Continue Reading Cross-Border Data Transfer Developments in China

On Episode 16 of Covington’s Inside Privacy Audiocast, Dan Cooper, Yan Luo and Zhijing Yu discuss the implications of China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) for companies with data or doing business in China. The law, which entered into force on November 1, is the first comprehensive personal information protection law in China and…