easily-transfer

By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The United States has set out limits to its use of data collected in bulk about European citizens after a new information-sharing pact was agreed this month, according to documents seen by Reuters. A clear explanation of what information could be used for — preventing its “indiscriminate” and “arbitrary” use — was a key condition of the new Privacy Shield framework that enables firms to easily transfer personal data to the United States. Under the deal, Washington agreed to create a specific new role within the State Department to deal with complaints and enquiries forwarded by EU data protection agencies.

By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Julia Fioretti SAN FRANCISCO/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.S. businesses from online coupon company RetailMeNot Inc to security software company Symantec Corp said a European change to rules governing transatlantic personal data transfers would hurt U.S. companies and called for a quick fix. An EU court on Tuesday struck down a deal to let U.S. and European companies easily transfer personal data between continents, leaving some U.S. companies concerned that they will be frozen out of the market or replaced by EU competitors. “The biggest fear is they'll lose the opportunity to provide data services in Europe,” said Emery Simon, counselor to BSA | The Software Alliance, an industry group for software companies such as Oracle , Salesforce and IBM .