Washington and Brussels have long been at odds over the friction between the European Union’s stringent data privacy rules and the comparatively lax regime in the U.S., which lacks a federal privacy law.That has created uncertainty for tech giants including Google and Facebook’s parent company Meta, raising the prospect that U.S. tech firms might need to keep European data out of the U.S.Industry groups largely welcomed Biden’s order but European consumer rights and privacy campaigners, including activist Max Schrems whose complaint kicked off the legal battle a decade earlier, were skeptical whether it goes far enough and could end up in the bloc’s top court again.The European Union’s executive arm, the European Commission, said the framework has “significant improvements” over the original Privacy Shield and it would now work on adopting a final decision clearing the way for data to flow freely between EU and U.S. companies certified under the framework.“However much the U.S. authorities try to paper over the cracks of the original Privacy Shield, the reality is that the EU and U.S. still have a different approach to data protection which cannot be cancelled out by an executive order,” said the group’s deputy director general, Ursula Pachl.“The moment EU citizens’ data travels across the Atlantic, it will not be afforded similar protections as in the EU.”The American Civil Liberties Union said Biden’s order is “a step in the right direction” but lacks adequate safeguards for Europeans or Americans."