Earlier today, the Article 29 Working Party (“WP29”) held a press conference to give a preview of its assessment of the proposed EU-US Privacy Shield arrangements that were slated to replace the struck-down Safe Harbor program and bring much-needed certainty to companies that transfer personal data from the EU to the US.

While full comments will be available later today, we know now that WP29 has declined to give Privacy Shield its support. It appears that WP29 has serious concerns about the limitations of US national security agencies to conduct mass surveillance.  WP29 is also skeptical about the rights of redress for EU residents and would prefer that EU residents be able to bring complaints immediately via their local EU data protection authorities.