> However this was struck down by US courts and that is what leaves us with this mess.
According to Wikipedia, it was struck down by the CJEU, not by a US court:
"The EU-US Privacy Shield for data sharing was struck down by the European Court of Justice on the grounds it did not provide adequate protections to EU citizens on government snooping."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU%E2%80%93US_Privacy_Shield#L...