A new framework designed to promote business between the UK and US, by facilitating the free flow of personal data between the two countries, will begin to apply from 12 October. The UK-US ‘data bridge’ is an extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF), which was adopted and took effect in July.

The EDPS welcomes the objective of the Proposal, namely to make the legal framework governing European statistics fit for the future. The EDPS also recognises that new innovative approaches can bring promises for statistics and research. However, the EDPS has serious concerns regarding the indication that information relating to specific persons might be obtained from any source, including digital traces relating to specific persons held by private data holders. The EDPS considers that collection of personal data from such sources may not be necessary and proportionate to the aims pursued, having regard to the potential risks for the rights and freedoms of data subjects. Therefore, the EDPS considers it is necessary to clarify in the Proposal that only non-personal (anonymised) data will be requested from the private data holders by national statistical institutes or the Commission (Eurostat)