Not only China, America snoops too; Facebook may need to stop sending EU info to US
Facebook could be forced to avoid sending data about its European users to the united states, in the first key fallout from a recent courtroom ruling that found some trans-Atlantic info transfers don’t protect users from American authorities snooping.
The social networking said Wednesday that Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has started an inquiry into how Facebook shifts info from europe to america.
The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said Ireland’s info commission gave Facebook until mid-September to respond to an initial order to suspend the transfers.
The result could be that the united states tech giant, which includes data centres all over the world, is forced to attempt an expensive and complex revamp of its procedures to ensure that European user info is kept from the US.
“Too little safe, safe and sound and legal international data transfers would destruction the economy and hamper the growth of data-driven businesses in the EU, only as we seek a recovery from COVID-19,” Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs and communications, Nick Clegg, wrote on a blog post.
The Irish info commission suggested a type of legal mechanism governing the info transfers, referred to as standard contractual clauses, “cannot in practice be utilized for EU-US info transfers,” Clegg said.
The commission, which didn't reply to a request for comment, is Facebook’s lead privacy regulator in Europe and will fine companies up to 4% of gross annual revenue for data breaches.
It’s the first key move by a European regulator following the EU’s top court issued a ruling in July on both types of legal mechanisms used to govern info transfers.
The European Court of Justice invalidated an agreement known as Privacy Shield and determined that the typical legal clauses were still OK. However in cases where generally there are concerns about data personal privacy, EU regulators should vet, and if needed prevent, the transfer of info.
It’s the latest development in a case that originated a lot more than seven years back, when Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist, filed a complaint about the handling of his Facebook info after former US National Reliability Organization contractor Edward Snowden revealed the American federal government was eavesdropping on people’s online info and communications. The revelations included detail on how Facebook gave US security agencies access to the non-public data of Europeans.
Though the case particularly targets Facebook, it could have far-reaching implications for other tech giants’ functions in Europe. In Facebook’s case, for example, text messages between Europeans would need to stay in Europe, that can be complicated and require the platform to be split, Schrems has said.
