The EU has deemed few countries to have an "adequate" level of data protection under the EU Data Protection Directive (the list includes Argentina, Canada and Switzerland). While the United States has notably failed to make the list, it appears Israel may soon join the select group, allowing companies transferring personal data from the EU to Israel without "model contractual clauses" or create binding corporate rules on the transfer of personal data.

The EU Article 29 Data Protection Working Party analyzed Israel’s data privacy framework, primarily focussing on Israel's Privacy Protection Act ("PPA"). The PPA, it found, provides data subjects with sufficient rights to access their personal data and avenues to rectify it if they believed it to be erroneous. While the statutory language of the PPA fell short of the rights provided under the EU Data Protection Directive in several places, the Working Party found that the Israeli courts have developed body of case law that had interpreted the PPA to provide for the protection of the privacy rights of data subjects.

It should be noted that the Working Party also found recently that Andorra now satisfies the EU’s stringent requirements.