Dive Brief:
-
The European Commission wants more information from the U.S. about recent reports of government-ordered scanning of Yahoo email accounts, according to a Reuters report.
-
The EU is reportedly concerned the court ordered scanning might be in violation of the Privacy Shield.
-
Last month, three former Yahoo employees claimed the company secretly scanned its customers’ emails in search of information about potential terrorism links at the request of the National Security Agency or FBI.
Dive Insight:
Reports about the Yahoo email scans apparently caught the attention of the EU, which has now asked the U.S. for more information. The EU wants more data on the Yahoo program even if it took place before the Privacy Shield went into affect.
"The Commission services have contacted the U.S. authorities to ask for a number of clarifications," Commission spokesman Christian Wigand told Reuters.
The EU and other countries appear increasingly concerned about how the U.S. handles the personal data of their citizens. The Privacy Shield, the new rules for transferring European Union citizens' personal information to the U.S., was officially adopted July 12 by EU and U.S. officials.
The agreement mandates that U.S. companies offer stronger protection for Europeans' personal data and also requires the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission, in cooperation with European Data Protection Authorities, to monitor and enforce data privacy violations.
