Standard Contractual Clauses
EU-approved legal frameworks for transferring personal data from the EU to countries without adequate data protection levels.
What Standard Contractual Clauses means
Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are pre-approved contract templates issued by the European Commission that provide legal mechanisms for transferring personal data from the EU/EEA to countries that lack an adequacy decision (i.e., countries the EU hasn't recognized as having equivalent data protection). SCCs are critical for advertising operations because most major ad platforms transfer EU user data to servers in the US or other non-EU countries. Following the Schrems II decision (which invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield), SCCs became the primary legal mechanism for transatlantic data transfers in advertising. The updated 2021 SCCs require supplementary measures including transfer impact assessments. The EU-US Data Privacy Framework (2023) provides an additional mechanism for transfers to certified US companies, but its long-term viability remains uncertain pending potential legal challenges.
Related terms
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation — the EU's comprehensive data protection law governing how personal data is collected, processed, and stored.
Data Processing Agreement
A legally binding contract between a data controller and data processor that governs how personal data is handled.
Data Controller
The entity that determines the purposes and means of processing personal data, bearing primary responsibility under GDPR.
Data Processor
An entity that processes personal data on behalf of a data controller, bound by a data processing agreement.