What regulation allows American and EU Personally Identifiable Information (PII) exchange without requiring American Entities to follow EU PII Laws?

The Safe Harbor framework was designed to facilitate the transfer of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) between the United States and the European Union while allowing American entities to operate without necessarily adhering to the stringent EU privacy laws. This framework was created to ensure that U.S. companies that receive personal data from EU citizens comply with principles of data protection similar to those outlined in EU regulations, but with a more flexible approach.

Under the Safe Harbor agreement, participating American companies could self-certify their compliance and commit to certain privacy principles, thus providing an adequate level of protection that the EU required for cross-border data transfer. This arrangement allowed for an easier exchange of information while fostering business operations without the immediate need to comply with the detailed and often complex EU privacy frameworks.

The other options pertain to different regulatory frameworks that do not directly address the transfer of PII between the U.S. and EU in the context of mutual recognition or exemption from adherence to EU laws. For instance, HIPAA is specifically about health information privacy, while SOX relates to financial transparency and corporate governance, and the EU regulation that ultimately replaced Safe Harbor is known as the Privacy Shield.