An investigation followed the Dutch data protection authority asking Facebook to delay rollout of its new privacy policy, while the Belgian data protection authority recently took the social network to court over its use of cookies and tracking. More than 3,000 companies in the US and Europe depend on the Safe Harbor agreement, according to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation think tank.
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Experts say it’s unlikely that the ruling will have any major impact on users of Facebook and similar services. This means their fundamental rights and freedoms as guaranteed under European Union law may have been contravened, but are now set to be better protected in the future.
Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems had challenged the Safe Harbour treaty in his fight to expose what information Facebook gave to American intelligence agencies.
American whistleblower Edward Snowden has joined Twitter and has been an instant hit on the micro-blogging site.
An agreement created to allow U.S. companies access to the personal data of European citizens has been deemed invalid by a Luxembourg Court.
Facebook, which denies the alleged breaches, has accused Schrems of launching the lawsuit for financial reasons rather than for his rights as a consumer – a claim laughed off by the activist’s lawyer, Wolfram Proksch: “He lives for, but not off the case”.
“The ECJ’s Schrems v Irish Data Protection Commissioner ruling has serious repercussions for multi-national companies with operations in Europe”.
“This case is not about Facebook,” said a representative.
I very much welcome the judgement of the Court, which will hopefully be a milestone when it comes to online privacy.
The court threw this deal in the bin because it was anxious about “mass indiscriminate surveillance and interception” of personal data by the US authorities. Reasonable legal redress must be possible.
“This specific technical ruling by the ECJ is not the great victory David Cameron hoped for”.
“There are currently no rules limiting individuals bringing complaints regarding data protection across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously, so we may now see these complaints springing up from every direction, where data is being shared around the world”.
Europe’s Court of Justice on Tuesday found that the “Safe Harbor” agreement which the United States and European Commission reached in 2000 did not sufficiently guarantee the protection of Europeans’ personal data. Law firm Morrison Foerster said that by invalidating the data-sharing mechanism now in place, the CJEU “puts these companies in an impossible position”.
Safe Harbour was introduced to allow United States firms to self-certify that they are carrying out the required steps.
“Our aim is to step up discussions with the USA [for] a renewed and safe framework for the transfer of personal data across the Atlantic”, Jourová said.
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Microsoft, in fact, is vigorously appealing a court case won (in the US) by the USA government, which asserts that it has the right to access data held in one of the company’s Irish data centres.
