US President Barack Obama has signed a measure into law on Wednesday that extends US privacy protections to European citizens and allows them to take legal action in US courts.
Obama praised the law for ensuring “that everybody’s data is protected in the strongest possible way with our privacy laws not only American citizens, but also foreign citizens.”
The Judicial Redress Act extends protections under US privacy law to allow citizens of certain countries as designated by the government to correct information in their records and take action in US courts if the US government unlawfully discloses their personal information.
It was touted by its sponsors as a way to ensure strong trans-Atlantic relations and provide European citizens similar rights to those granted US citizens in European courts.
The measure was considered key to an agreement reached this month between the European Union and the United States on a new system to protect trans-Atlantic data transfers.
The agreement had to be hammered out after the EU’s top court struck down the Safe Harbour system, which had since 2000 regulated how businesses in the EU and the US share data.
The court found that the deal did not fully safeguard the rights of EU citizens, leaving businesses on both sides of the Atlantic in legal limbo.
