If one were to take a walk on one of the beaches on France’s famed Riviera, he or she may assume that Americans value their privacy more than Europeans. However, a recent decision by European Court of Justice proves the contrary is true, at least for personal data. Recently the European Court of Justice has called the European Union-United States Safe Harbor Framework into question. The Framework, which went into effect in 2000, aimed to make it easier for U.S. organizations to collect data about E.U. citizens. The decision leaves about 4,500 U.S. companies in a state of purgatory with their business operations relating to the data transfer of data about E.U. citizens. The story of the Safe Harbor framework starts in 1998 when the European Commission enacted its Directive on Data Protection. This directive prohibited the transfer of personal data from European Union members to third countries that do not provide, either through domestic legislation…
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