An “adequacy decision” is a decision adopted by the European Commission, which establishes that a non-EU country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data by reason of its domestic law and international commitments.
The effect of such a decision is that personal data can flow from the 28 EU Member States (and the three European Economic Area member countries: Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland) to that third country, without any further restrictions.
The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred to the U.S. The EU-US Privacy Shield consists of Privacy Principles that companies must abide by and commitments on how the arrangement will be enforced (written commitments and assurance by the State Secretary John Kerry, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, the Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, amongst others).
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