What does the invalidation of the Privacy Shield mean for my email marketing?

What is the Privacy Shield?

Moreover, there is no one American organisation responsible for data regulation. Instead, different departments, organisations and even the White House play a role in shaping the rules. That makes the United States regulations less stable and less transparent than EU regulations.

The Privacy Shield protected European website visitors’ personal data more consistently and thoroughly than the United States regulations would.

Why was the Privacy Shield invalidated?

The Privacy Shield received a lot of opposition when it was installed in 2016. The European Court passed the regulations, but critics knew that the Privacy Shield did not grant the same protections for European citizens’ data in the US as the GDPR did in the EU.

For instance, experts wondered to which extent certain parts of the treaty would be honoured in practice and how we would even be able to verify its implementation.

The American promise that there would be no ‘large scale surveillance’ of European data was also rightly questioned, not in the least because the legislation regarding counter-terrorism still applies. In the war on terror, the American government sometimes plays fast and loose with online privacy, whether it’s their own citizens’ or the Europeans’.

All in all, everyone agreed that the Privacy Shield would mostly provide a false sense of protection and the critics were proven right. The European Court eliminated the inadequate regulation in 2020.

What if I manage my email marketing with an American tool like Mailchimp?

You’re probably using multiple email tools within your email marketing. Are some of those American platforms? Then chances are you’ll need to reevaluate their privacy policy, since they don’t fall under European regulations. For instance, the Mailchimp privacy policy still refers to the recently invalidated Privacy Shield.

Problem: you can’t uphold privacy regulations that no longer exist. According to the European Court, you can only comply by taking extra measures through ‘Standard Contractual Clauses’. As a Mailchimp user, you’ll need to update certain elements to remain compliant.

The European Court explicitly points to your research duty to evaluate the level of protection any third party country offers before transferring them any personal information. Moreover, you have the duty to report to your customers when you’re exporting data to the US or any other country outside the EU.

Should I switch to a European email tool for my email marketing?

Do you want to be sure your email marketing is completely safe and that you’re protecting your visitors’ information as best you can? Then yes, you are better off with a European email tool like Flexmail.

As you’ll read in our privacy policy, your email marketing will automatically comply with all regulations when using Flexmail. For all of our data storage, we count on the most reliable one-stop partner for the hosting of just about every IT infrastructure, website or application.


As should be the case for European email tools, Flexmail helps you protect your company against litigation regarding privacy violations and earn the trust of each customer, visitor and user.

Finally, you won’t have to forego easy usability and comfort with your European tool. You’ll have even less to worry about: you’ll work and be supported in your own language, you’ll get all the powerful features you need to use your new tool and you’ll rest assured that you’re complying with the GDPR.

Ready to trade your inadequate American tool for the reliable Flexmail?
Test our email tool for free for 30 days or contact our specialists for personal advice. Talk to you soon!