EU Court Invalidates Data Transfers to the U.S. – What It Means for Businesses
In mid-July, the European Court of Justice ruled that transferring personal data from the EU to the U.S.—especially to U.S. companies—is no longer legally permissible under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This all started back in 2013, when Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy advocate, filed a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Authority against Facebook’s European subsidiary. He wanted to prevent the company from transferring his personal data to its parent company in the United States. In its recent judgment, the Court considered such transfers to be a violation of fundamental rights.
You might think it’s not a big deal if data is stored by Facebook, Amazon, or Google in the U.S. and that these companies have access to it. However, the reality is more complex: U.S. intelligence agencies can also access this data, even without a court order. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows for such access.
Risks – What This Means for Companies
This ruling undoubtedly brings major changes for businesses.
- For instance, companies may now need to use or build data centers within the EU to store personal data locally.
- The EU anticipated this decision and is currently reviewing and developing new legal frameworks. According to Max Schrems, only a political solution will be reliable: the U.S. must reform its surveillance laws to ensure adequate data protection.
- European businesses are now reconsidering how they manage their social media accounts. Data protection officers and legal teams are reviewing their own channels to determine whether they are still legally compliant.
We’ll be sure to keep you updated here!
Opportunities and Next Steps
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