What a lawsuit against Facebook in Europe and the NSA mass spying revelations have wrought: The possibility of big changes in the way tech companies handle European user data.
In an opinion published today, the legal adviser to the European Union s top court says there s no real protection of Facebook s European user data sent to U.S. servers in light of the 2013 revelations about U.S. National Security Agency surveillance of online communications.
Thousands of U.S. companies transmit data under the safe harbor agreement between Europe and the U.S. reached in 2000, the BBC says. But the agreement is invalid, according to the opinion of Advocate General Yves Bot, because the surveillance carried out by the United States intelligence services is mass, indiscriminate surveillance. He says individual countries in Europe should be able to block the transfer of user data to the U.S.
Bot s opinion is non-binding, but numerous reports say the EU court tends to follow its legal adviser s opinion. A ruling is expected this year.
What brought all this about is a case against Facebook by Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist who has been a thorn in Facebook s side for years. In 2010, Schrems requested that the company provide him with all the information it had about him. Facebook granted his request — and opened a Pandora s box. In 2011, Schrems founded the group Europe versus Facebook. Last year, he sued Facebook, accusing the social network of, among other things, cooperating with the NSA s Prism spying program. Like other tech companies, Facebook has denied knowledge of the Prism program.
Now what?
If the safe harbor system is gone, it is very likely that the data protection authorities in the 28 EU member states will not allow data transfers to U.S. companies that are subject to mass surveillance laws, Schrems said in a statement reacting to Bot s opinion today. This may have major commercial downsides for the U.S. tech industry.
Facebook has not yet responded to our request for comment.
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