Image: sparkle-motion, CC BY-NC 2.0
Personal data can be transmitted freely between the EU and Israel, due to the European Commission’s decision last year to reconfirm the country’s “adequacy status”.
That status bestows a recognition from the EU that another country’s data protection laws and practices are essentially equivalent to those set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
A letter sent to the European Commission by civil society organisations in April last year raised concerns that “problems with the rule of law and practices of mass surveillance by security and intelligence agencies call the adequacy agreement into question.”
The new letter (pdf), coordinated by European Digital Rights, reasserts the call for the Commission to withdraw Israel’s adequacy status.
It says there are six key issues that undermine Israel’s status as a country to which personal data can be transferred freely:
- the rule of law in Israel;
- the scope and substance of Israel’s current and future privacy and data protection legal framework;
- the role of national security provisions and entities;
- onward transfers beyond Israel’s internationally-recognised borders;
- the review procedure; and
- the application of the Adequacy framework in the context of Israel’s involvement in what the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called ‘grave breaches of in ternational law committed over the past year and a half’. Respect for international law is a precursor for any state to be deemed adequate for the processing of personal data.
Read the full letter: Re: Continued Lack of Response on Israel’s Adequacy Status and Urgent Need for Reassessment in Light of New Developments (24 June 2025, pdf)
