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Irish Data Protection Commissioner Ordered To Investigate Facebook Data (www.rte.ie)

Posted by timothy on from the mulligan-stew dept.

New submitter bigtomrodney writes: Following last week's ruling by the European Court of Justice ruling on Safe Harbor, the Irish High Court has quashed the former decision of the Data Protection Commissioner not to investigate Facebook. In the current vacuum of legislation and given that this challenge is directly focused on U.S. intelligence agency's gathering of European citizen's data, this makes for interesting times ahead. See this story from earlier this month for a bit more background; all this fuss comes down mostly to efforts by one determined gadfly (Max Schrems) and the attention he's brought to the issue of privacy when data crosses national (or at least notional) borders.

18 comments

  1. "Data Protection Commissioner" ? LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    #1 on the list of occupations I do not want.

    1. Re:"Data Protection Commissioner" ? LOL by Maritz · · Score: 0

      I guess you'll have to stick with the rentboy shenanigans for the meantime.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    2. Re:"Data Protection Commissioner" ? LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why? Nobody with power will be mad at you if you don't do your work.

  2. Explains why FB is hosted in Ireland... by Zymergy · · Score: 1

    This goes a long way to explain why FB is largely hosted in Ireland...

    1. Re:Explains why FB is hosted in Ireland... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How so?

    2. Re:Explains why FB is hosted in Ireland... by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Well, what should happen to a company that trusted a government's promises, only to have the legal rug yanked out from under them?

      Smacks of retroactive legislation. Anyone should be able to ask if a certain action is legal or not, and proceed accordingly.

      Going forward, the rules should change. Going backward, with respect to penalties, no.

      Also, gosh Daisy Ridley is purty.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    3. Re:Explains why FB is hosted in Ireland... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, what should happen to a company that trusted a government's promises, only to have the legal rug yanked out from under them?

      Smacks of retroactive legislation. Anyone should be able to ask if a certain action is legal or not, and proceed accordingly.

      That's a rather bold assumption that FB ever asked anyone if their actions were legal. And whom would the ask? The Legislative or the Judicative branch? At which level, and why should the answer be binding for anyone or anything?

    4. Re:Explains why FB is hosted in Ireland... by bigtomrodney · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think you've been keeping up with the case. There is no new legislation, but a very simple point in contention. Did the Safe Harbour provision, intended to ensure corporations met European levels of data control, cover state intelligence gathering. The ruling is at this point, no. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner had stated in relation to the European Data Protection Directive that they had no power to look at the scope of Safe Harbour and that in of itself Facebook met the requirements of Safe Harbour.

      It is not news that the NSA etc. did not see themselves as constrained by Safe Harbour. In light of the ECJ's rulings an investigation into Facebook's protection of European data seems appropriate.

      --
      I never get used to these constant resurrections
    5. Re:Explains why FB is hosted in Ireland... by oldmac31310 · · Score: 0

      I disagree. She isn't.

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    6. Re: Explains why FB is hosted in Ireland... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As a European citizen I should say that what 'our' government promised us prior to any of this 'safe harbour' fudging definitely trumps any concerns we should have about FB's invasive business model.

    7. Re:Explains why FB is hosted in Ireland... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was the European state security services who actually collected the data on their own citizens and shared the data with the NSA. How is going after companies based in the US going to keep their citizens data from being collected? If only Europe had created their own companies like Google, Facebook, or MS they wouldn't have to shakedown US companies in an attempt to stay relevant and collect shakedown money. Hell at least China was able to clone their own versions of Google and Facebook to make sure any revenues generated stay in China. Europe is digging it's own grave by annoying wealthy and political connected corporations. When the US starts raising import tariffs or dictating new and more stringent requirements if they want access to the US market look to see an abrupt change of direction to the EU's strategy. Contrary to popular belief the US still wields enormous power on the global scene. It's past time to use some of that power instead of worrying about offending others. The US is already under attack from all corners of the globe so who cares about what the world thinks anymore? Both China and Russia don't give 2 shits about what others think of their actions and it's about time the US followed their lead.

    8. Re: Explains why FB is hosted in Ireland... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. Switch their servers off. Tomorrow.

  3. No legislation vacuum by Halo1 · · Score: 2

    The "Safe Harbour" agreement (which allowed US companies to basically wave their hand and say "yes, of course we comply with your privacy safeguards") was ruled to run counter to the EU privacy directive as interpreted in the light of articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

    This EU privacy directive and its national implementations are, however still in full force.

    --
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    1. Re:No legislation vacuum by bigtomrodney · · Score: 1

      Yes, I largely agree. I wrote the blurb in haste. What I was trying (unsuccessfully) to alude to was the expected change to legislation to ensure business can continue to exchange data.

      Essentially all of the big IT providers are American. Processing and the more contemporary "cloud" services that everything seems to have morphed into mean that your customer data does not have widely-accepted protection under the DPD. If a replacement does not step in we may see repatriating of data and a cleanup exercise. It doesn't seem very likely, but neither did this ruling.

      --
      I never get used to these constant resurrections
  4. Invalid "public interest" clauses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The intelligence agencies did comply with it as Safe Harbor had a general "public interest" clause that allowed US legislation to override any Safe Harbor principles. This was one of the main reasons why the ECJ invalidated the Safe Harbor Commission decision because European human rights prohibit any limitations beyond what's necessary and proportionate in a democratic society (Safe Harbor missed the "proportionate" part). Here, the European high courts are developing some strong case-law against any indiscriminate surveillance of public citizens, especially triggered by European data retention acts and the revealed activities of intelligence agencies that where brought before the courts.

  5. Yeah by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

    ireland has NO economy without the tech companies and tax evasion. they will bend.

  6. shut up timothy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you think a nation is just a notion, wait til it runs your skinny ass over with a tank from its notional army.