International Data Transfers post Schrems – Moving Towards Solutions

Abstract

International data transfers are both essential for the modern world and a major source of risksto the protection of personal data. In this, we can speak of a clash between an important multifacetedobjective and the protection of a complex fundamental human right with implicationsgoing far beyond that right itself.The goal must be to facilitate data privacy respecting international data transfers. However,agreement on this goal – even if widespread – does not necessarily signal agreement on how wereach that goal. To make progress, we must proceed with caution and yet avoid getting boggeddown in the unavoidable challenges, such as definitional challenges, we will face.This article canvasses a selection of key considerations that ought to be kept in mind whenwe discuss approaches to international data transfers. However, to prepare ground for that discussion,it first sets the scene by examining the so-called Schrems II decision, its larger contextand background, as well as some of the reactions we have seen to that decision.