We can protect national security and privacy at the same time

To gain the EU’s trust, the US government will have to accept the fact that national security and data privacy are not mutually exclusive, writes Viviane Reding

On September 8, after four years of painstaking negotiations, representatives of the United States and the European Union initialed a transatlantic agreement to strengthen data protection.

The so-called Umbrella Agreement puts in place safeguards regarding data transfers for the purpose of law enforcement and addresses long-standing European concerns about the right to privacy. In particular, it establishes the right of European citizens to access their data and request that inaccuracies be corrected. It also sets clear limits on how long data can be held and what can be done with it.