Did U.S. Executive Order Signal Trouble For EU Citizen Privacy Rights?

As President Trump settles into office, his administration has issued a flurry of executive orders aimed at reshaping the U.S. government. One order in particular may have a broader impact on global business than originally thought, particularly as it relates to the transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the United States.

Essentially, President Trump's efforts to withdraw privacy protections for non-U.S. citizens are coming in direct conflict with recent efforts by the European Union to strengthen privacy protections for its citizens, no matter where in the world they travel.

This clash of ideologies threatens an already shaky data transfer relationship between the EU and the U.S. and could lead to problems for businesses and law enforcement alike.

The Order and its provisions

On January 25, President Trump signed his "Executive Order: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States." This Order principally addressed the withholding of federal funds from so-called "sanctuary cities"— U.S. cities that have refused to deport or respond to illegal aliens pursuant to federal law. But a closer review of the Order may raise separate concerns for global and foreign businesses.

Section 14 of the Order states:

Sec. 14. Privacy Act. Agencies shall, to the extent consistent with applicable law, ensure that their privacy policies exclude persons who are not United States citizens or lawful permanent residents from the protections of the Privacy Act regarding personally identifiable information.

This section directly references the Privacy Act of 1974. This Act was established to "balance the government's need to maintain information about individuals with the rights of individuals to be protected from unwarranted invasions of their privacy stemming from federal agencies' collection, maintenance, use, and for understanding its remedial purposes."

The Act focused on four basic policy objectives:

To restrict the disclosure of personally identifiable information maintained by government agencies. To grant individuals increased rights of access to information government agencies held about them. To grant individuals the right to amend inaccurate, irrelevant, untimely, or incomplete information maintained by government agencies. To establish "fair information practices" that required government agencies to comply with statutory norms for the collection, maintenance, and dissemination of personally identifiable information. Although...