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Officials from the European Union and the United States are making progress to ensure that Transatlantic data flow continues. The negotiations are important to all companies which operate in the US and EU. Also big tech vendors have to deal with these regulations.

In a report by the Wall Street Journal, the two sides aim to avert the disruption of company data transfers through the resolution of a long-standing conflict between the bloc’s strict data privacy laws and the United States’s desperate need to snoop on people. The talks continue this week in Brussels after an earlier round in the US this summer.

What happens this week?

A US delegation will meet with the bloc’s officials, with the main aim of agreeing on conditions to allow firms to continue storing and accessing personal information about European citizens on American soil.

At the time of writing this, the office of the United States Trade Representative and EU has not made details of this week’s talks public or responded for comment. The whole issue concerns how different the laws are.  If they operated the same way, data would flow freely.

Meanwhile in the US

Lawmakers are seeking about $1 billion in funding to allow the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to conduct privacy probes, having been plagued by a slew of attacks this year. One could argue that the slack laws and other loopholes in the system contribute to America’s cybersecurity problems.

There seems to be some sort of amoral approach to everything regarding people’s privacy in the US.

What the FTC uncovers could be crucial in changing legislation regarding privacy to fit the times and gel with the EU, which has introduced effective laws that see big tech companies fined for their transgressions.