European Commission addresses the issue of data protection in EU-US agreement

The draft has been conceived to ensure protection of personal information like passenger data or financial information that is transferred as part of transatlantic cooperation in criminal matters. Under the future agreement, the transfer or processing of personal data by EU or US authorities would only be permitted for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes in the framework of fighting crime and terrorism. Furthermore, EU citizens would gain the right to access their personal data and seek judicial redress in the US if their data is unlawfully processed. In addition, independent public authorities would be enabled to help people exercise their privacy rights and supervise transatlantic data transfers.

Such an agreement is designed to level off the different approaches that both the US and EU currently take in the protection of personal data and privacy. Nevertheless, the agreement will not provide the legal basis for any specific transfers of personal data between the EU and the US. A specific legal basis for such data transfers would always remain within the scope of a national law in an EU Member State.