Valve has certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, meaning it has committed to specific data protection standards when transferring your personal data from the EU, UK, or Switzerland to its US servers. If Steam's privacy policy ever conflicts with these Framework principles, the Framework principles win.
EU, UK, and Swiss users' personal data is transferred to Valve's US infrastructure under the DPF certification framework, which provides some protections but remains subject to ongoing legal challenges regarding US surveillance law access to transferred data.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Data Privacy Framework (DPF) Certification for EU/UK/Swiss Data Transfers and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →This certification is the legal mechanism that allows Valve to transfer EU, UK, and Swiss users' personal data to the United States — without it, those transfers could be unlawful under GDPR, potentially exposing users' data to US government access under laws like FISA 702.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly implicates GDPR Art. 45 (adequacy decisions), Art. 46 (appropriate safeguards), and Chapter V generally (restrictions on international transfers). The EU-U.S. DPF was adopted by the European Commission on July 10, 2023 (Implementing Decision C(2023) 4745). It also engages UK GDPR international transfer rules and the UK adequacy decision for the US DPF extension. The FTC is the primary US enforcement authority for DPF compliance under FTC Act Section 5.
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