How does EU privacy law and policy seem to differ from US law?

The essential difference between the US and EU when it comes to privacy laws and data protection is their point of focus. The US seems more concerned with integrity of data as a commercial asset, while the EU, with the GDPR, has firmly put individual rights before the interest of businesses.

Does the US have a GDPR equivalent?

There is no federal data privacy law like GDPR in the United States. There are some national laws that have been put in place to regulate the use of data in certain industries. 1974 – The U.S. Privacy Act which outlines rights and restrictions regarding data held by US government agencies.

Does the US have data privacy laws?

The United States doesn’t have a singular law that covers the privacy of all types of data. Since there are no federal privacy laws regulating many companies, they’re pretty much free to do what they want with the data, unless a state has its own data privacy law (more on that below).

Who regulates privacy in Europe vs the US?

The U.S. overrules EU privacy standards. While Europe sets some commendable standards like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is used to police the use of personal information by major companies and organizations online, it does little for Americans’ digital privacy rights.

Has the United States received an adequacy decision from the European Union that it adequately protects personal data that is transferred from the EU to the US?

The adequacy decision on the EU-US Privacy Shield was adopted on 12 July 2016 and allowed the free transfer of data to companies certified in the US under the Privacy Shield. In its judgment of 16 July 2020 (Case C-311/18), the Court of Justice of the European Union invalidated the adequacy decision.

How big is Europe compared to us?

Europe is the second-smallest continent on the planet with an area of about 3,930,000sq miles. Europe occupies about 2\% of the world’s surface area and 6.8\% of the world’s total land area (57,510,000sq miles). Therefore, Europe has a bigger land area (3,910,680 sq miles) than the U.S. (3,531,905 sq miles).