EU May Forbid the Transfer of Personal Data To the US

An anonymous reader writes: As the Snowden revelations have shown, personal data stored in the United States of America is not protected from the US government, be it through warrantless eavesdropping or national security letters. In light of this, the general attorney for the Court of Justice of the European Union has just issued an opinion requiring the US to be removed from the list of "safe harbors", where the transfer of personal data of European citizens is permitted. If the court follows his opinion, the change will have deep impact in the operations of large transnational Internet companies, between a US government that wants to keep on spying, and European authorities that will punish them if they let it happen.

Comments

The US needs a serious spanking

[msobkow]

The US needs to wake up to the fact that it doesn't set policy for the world, and that other jurisdictions have their own laws and regulations that US companies have to abide by if they want to do business there.

Enough with jackboot "treaties" that the US doesn't even try to abide by after signing them. :(

Re:The US needs a serious spanking

[msobkow]

No one is making claims under the agreement. What they are saying is that the US does not abide by the terms of the agreement, so the agreement should be nullified.

This isn't a decision being made by courts; it's a decision being made by the government. Totally different ballgame.

The US does not get to dictate law to foreign nations, no matter how much they'd like to.

Re: The US needs a serious spanking

[Anonymous Coward]

What handouts? Maybe you should feed your own starving citizens before even dreaming about some handouts? US "handouts" always come with strings attached, nobody in their right mind should touch them. If you want to build your country in the image of 1984 please do, but don't be surprised when the rest of thwe world refuses to use it as a manual on society building.

Re:The US needs a serious spanking

[Anonymous Coward]

Let them handle Putin, ISIS, and the refugees, all over on their side of the world. Not the US's problem.

You know that the rise of ISIS and the refugee crisis is the result of the US conquest in the middle east, right?
What your are calling "Not the US's problem." is the consequences of US politics a decade ago. The US has been criticized for it but never took responsibility for the shit that was stirred up.
Dealing with the refugees could be as easy as building a wall like the one Trump suggested towards the Mexican borders, but that is not very humanitarian.

The insanity that is Putin is the result of the cold war. I'm a bit too young to remember what led to what and how people in "intelligence"-agencies ended up that way so I can't really point out how he ended up like that. The only thing I can say for sure is that he doesn't act differently from people who work in similar agencies in the west.
From a pragmatic standpoint it could be useful to have paranoid people around to let them think about all the possible threats, but it is very unwise to take their fears at face value or to put them in a position of power.

Re:The US needs a serious spanking

[bug1]

The US needs to wake up to the fact that it doesn't set policy for the world,and that other jurisdictions have their own laws and regulations

The US government happily violates its own constitution. Its expecting too much for any nation to have more respect for foreign laws than their own.

Re:The US needs a serious spanking

[viperidaenz]

Isn't Facebook an Irish company?

Re:The US needs a serious spanking

[Anonymous Coward]

So the US never violates international treaties then? Do some research outside your local corporational propaganda channels and wake up..

Re:The US needs a serious spanking

[Richard_at_work]

With all due respect, its not down to the US government to accept that US companies have to obey foreign laws - the conflict is something that solely needs to be handled by the companies in question, they have to decide how they can follow both sets of laws if required to.

A US company operating in a foreign country doesn't suddenly fall outside US jurisdiction - if they do find themselves in conflict between the laws of the country they (or their owning umbrella company) are incorporated in and the laws of the country they are doing business in, then its up to the company to decide whether they can resolve that or leave one of the jurisdictions (stop doing business in that country or change the country of incorporation or ownership).

The EU passing laws requiring foreign companies to solely follow EU jurisdiction doesn't solve anything - it doesn't stop the companies being in the jurisdiction of their home country, all it does is create further conflict.

The only thing that can satisfy this situation are completely, entirely and utterly unconnected companies - Amazon SARL having no ownership or connection to Amazon.com Inc. If there is any ownership or similar connection between the two companies, its entirely legitimate for Amazon.com Inc's legal jurisdiction to cascade down the chain of ownership.

Re:The US needs a serious spanking

[gl4ss]

if facebook had no european operations it would not be having any problems, as the data would already be in USA.

but they're doing business and hosting in the EU, so there's that. nothing forcing them to try to prosecute in the usa.

bottom line is that USA isn't complying.

Re:The US needs a serious spanking

[The Grassy Knoll]

companies like Facebook may have to choose between doing business in the US or in Europe.

Win Win for Europeans!

Re: The US needs a serious spanking

[nospam007]

"So what? We can still kill your economy and a sizeable part of your population without breaking a sweat. "

Only if the Chinese loan you the money to do it.

Re:Weigh it up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or

US corporation stay within the USA, missing out on doing business with 96% of the worlds population.

At one point the USA made up about 60% of the worlds GDP, that meant doing business with the US.

Now the US is about 1/3 of the worlds GDP, meaning more money can be made dealing with everyone else.

The US is no longer able to dictate to the world, and that scares US politicians shitless, they don't know how to behave when not in charge.

Yeah! Only EU countries can spy on the EU!

[Anonymous Coward]

Cough, Germany, UK, etc. etc. Cough cough.

This is just more "Anti American Company" bullshit that parts of the EU pull every once in a while because they're mad all the big internet companies are in the US and stuff and not in the EU. Oh sure, the proposed purpose SOUNDS noble. Except plenty of countries in the EU already do the same thing they're protesting so loudly about. So really it has nothing to do with privacy, and everything to do with throwing a hissy fit that they don't have their own Apple or Facebook.

Re:Weigh it up.

[msobkow]

This.

There is no "right" for US corporations to participate in foreign markets. If they don't want to abide by the terms of a foreign nation's laws, they're free not to do business there.

They are not free to impose US law on those nations.

Re:Weigh it up.

[amiga3D]

And then we get into a tit for tat situation. The US will make it hard for European Union corporations to do business here. It wont be good for anyone but the US has deep pockets even with the last two presidents presiding over a spending spree of biblical proportions. It's arguably more self sufficient than the EU. It'll be bad for the world in general. I expect there will be some sort of compromise way before anything like that happens though.