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A CASE INVOLVING social media giant Facebook and Ireland’s privacy watchdog could dramatically change European digital-privacy laws for decades to come.
But a ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) forcing a change in a 15-year-old agreement on data sharing between the EU and the US could also be a ”near-disaster” for major technology companies with significant operations in Ireland.
The court is today hearing a case Austrian digital privacy activist Max Schrems brought against Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner over rules for Facebook’s local arm.
The High Court referred the proceedings to the ECJ after Schrems, who had been a Facebook user since 2008 and is part of the group Europe vs Facebook, complained to the commissioner that the social media giant had breached EU data-protection laws.
European Facebook users agree terms with the company’s Irish entity when they sign up for the social network.
But Schrems, who has been tweeting the court proceedings today, claimed users were given no meaningful protection from government spying under these agreements.
US spying allegations
The move followed revelations from whistleblower Edward Snowden that the site, and others, were passing on users’ information to the US government’s National Security Agency (NSA).
The Irish privacy watchdog rejected Schrems’ call that it investigate Facebook over the company’s alleged involvement with the NSA’s PRISM surveillance operation on the grounds of EU “safe harbour” rules.
Under regulations first introduced in 2000, US companies are allowed to process European users’ data in their home country as long as they agree to comply with EU data-protection standards.
This potentially leaves those users’ private information exposed to surveillance from the US government and its agencies.
The case has wide implications for how tech companies do business in Europe, with the potential to force many with firms with significant operations in Ireland, including Apple, Google, Twitter and Yahoo, to completely overhaul their data-processing networks.
If the ECJ rules in Schrems’ favour, these firms could be obliged to carry out more of those operations in Europe under much stricter standards.
A ‘landmark decision’
Digital Rights Ireland chairman TJ McIntyre told TheJournal.ie the case would likely be a “landmark decision” which, along with several other recent proceedings, would “shape the fundamentals of privacy law in Europe for decades to come”.
Last year the ECJ ruled EU citizens had the “right to be forgotten” after a Spanish man brought a case against Google over his name appearing in certain search results.
It also threw out the EU’s data retention directive after a challenge over its breadth from Digital Rights Ireland and others. That ruling opened the door for the groups to appeal to the High Court for Irish data-retention rules to be rewritten.
In a blog post last year, US academic Henry Farrell said tech companies had so far chosen to set up in Ireland for tax reasons and “because they see Irish privacy officials as more flexible than their mainland European counterparts”.
He said if the ECJ ruled safe harbour invalid it would be a “potential near-disaster” for US firms like Facebook, Google and Microsoft – all of which relied on Europeans’ personal data.
The death of safe harbor would mean that they were not able to legally export personal data, potentially crippling their business model,” he said.
A new deal
The US and Europe would need to thrash out a new privacy deal to replace the old framework, but that would have to take place in the context of a binding ECJ ruling. No decision is expected until late this year.
However in a recent filing, Twitter warned about the problems it faced if the safe harbour scheme was revoked.
(This) could require us to create duplicative, and potentially expensive, information technology infrastructure and business operations in Europe or limit our ability to collect and use personal information collected in Europe,” it said.
In the High Court’s decision last year which referred the case to the ECJ, Justice Gerard Hogan said the Irish privacy watchdog had made the right decision, based on the safe harbour regime.
However he noted these rules were made before the September 11 terrorist attacks and they may be the relic of a “more innocent age”.
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People should delete FB and claim their privacy back. Zuckerberg has even stated that “anyone with a Facebook account is an idiot”
Hard to argue with Zuckerberg on that. As for online privacy, there is no such thing. Once you connect to the ‘net your device is hoovered for personal data and the Yanks are not the only people doing it. Any photos, contacts, messages etc are copied and you will never have them deleted.
Also FB accounts can’t be deleted, they can only be switched off
He didn’t say anyone with an account was an idiot, he said he could not believe when he started how much people OVERSHARED (cos this oversharing is something he can commodity to make him rich to sell to advertisers, and it’s something the US and UK govts can abuse to mess with political opponents) and thought “My God are these people idiots?”
Think about it, if you pulled someone from the year 1999 aside and said people would willingly upload:
-Their minute by minute location
-Their entire contact details
-All their likes and dislikes
-Allow a company to save and use their chatlogs with their friends
and that a govt agency would use this stuff to data mine, in some cases saving every single keystroke on millions of computers…they’d have thought this described some kind of creepy dystopia…but no no the overfed popcorn stuffing masses just blindly shovel out this info then go “HEY..MY PRIVACY!” later when the scandal breaks. We need more like this guy
I believe you’re wrong. Facebook accounts can in fact be deleted. This delete feature always added a few years back. To delete the profile is an option when you opt to deactivate your profile. You can choose to deactivate or delete.
We don’t have a data protection office big enough for this.
“I think you’re going to need a bigger quango”
Simple rule, Don’t tweet or post anything that you wouldn’t be prepared to say to someone’s face.
Good point ya bas**rd
This can only be a good thing if max succeeds. The time of the headline from the journal is scaremongering to an extent
This has deeper implications than Facebook accounts.
If you don’t like Facebook….delete your profile FOOL
What if you don’t like FB and were smart enough not to open an account?
Then you are in clover
They track you anyway, look up Facebook shadow profiles or Facebook tracks non members.
Why do we care so much about our personal data?
why can’t I see all your FB photos?
WHAT ARE YOU HIDING??????
If you’re asking the question then it’s obvious you don’t care.
Why wouldn’t you care about privacy and securing your personal data? Do you close your curtains in the evenings and lock your door when you’re heading out?
Jesus, what a silly question to ask.
Link me to every porn video you’ve ever watched, and upload every single chatlog saved in your computer…what? it’s no big deal right? oh and include all your google searches
You Evin did you have a g
Evin did you have a good time in Edinburgh. Looks like it was great fun.
Hope you get the point of me asking that.
Look at the case involving an Irish family whose Missing Person photo of their now deceased parent was used in a Horror Movie without their knowledge or consent. They posted the picture in the hope somebody could help in locating a loved one, not for that.
I don’t really believe in online privacy, I’ll reveal everything about myself online except my first name. And unlike other people who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk, here’s my google search history from the last 24 hours to prove it.
chocolate cookie recipe
knitting patterns
the journal.ie
best pictures of benedict cumberbatch
cheap wool dublin
village people tickets
cheapest anal beads dublin
longest kids film (im minding the grandkids)
how to reduce wrinkles
fashion for older women
1940s and 1950s nostalgia photos
Any more private information you want from me? Cause I will give it to you all, no bother.
Ah stop being over-dramatic, a company or a government isn’t going to single you out and try to embarrass you.
Data release is only harmful if a select few have their data openly available. If everyone’s data was available nobody would care.
More data also helps develop new and existing businesses, so more money for all, yay.
Yes, please tell us your credit card number, bank account number, mobile phone number, address, date of birth, and family names and friend names . These are a small portion of my details which Facebook already have. I’m not even a big FB user, but I work in tech and have used the FB platform for my job.
I am absolutely interested in online privacy and Facebook and other large tech companies being restricted to using that information responsibly.
Why are you putting your credit card number and bank account number on your Facebook? Silly goose ;)
The rest is pretty normal info you’d tell to most people anyway.
Obviously there’s a line that can be crossed if you think you’re sharing sensitive data securely but that’s not really what people complain about all the time. Who cares if they see your search history – that just means you’ll see ads for things you might actually be interested in.
Just think it’s all a bit mad.
Does this Max guy not have anything better to do with his time? Its a free service they have to make their money somehow otherwise there would be no Facebook, twitter or Max.
If Mark wants to advertise me some stuff then fine I don’t care. In fact the majority of people probably don’t give a damn.
Share what you want on the web.
It’s a little more complicated when the nature of the data-handling is not what you believed it was when you signed up for it.
John, if you are receiving a product or service for free, then YOU are the product.
The recent submission of the Irish delegation to the Working Group on Information Exchange and Data Protection highlights the practical complexity of implementing the ‘one stop shop’ and in particular suggests:
• The more reliance that is placed on a EDPB, the more complex, costly and time consuming regulation will be;
• EDPB referrals should only take place where a majority of data protection authorities agree and where reasoned grounds have been advanced for the referral e.g. that there is a significant risk to the freedoms of data subjects;
• The ability to administer sanctions should remain at local level and not be imposed on local regulators at EDPB level, not least because it ensures local data protection authorities are best placed to defend challenges, which would most likely arise at a local level;
• Interaction between “concerned” Data Protection Authorities (the basis on which other regulators could become involved as interested parties, in local data protection matters in a particular Member State), should be limited to “areas of high risk processing”;
• There is a need for greater clarity as to how individual data subjects can have redress where decisions in relation to the processing of their personal data are being made at EDPB level and then implemented locally.
So one big risk is that the system becomes weighed down by cross jurisdictional bureaucracy or too much centralised decision making. Another is that the ease with which individuals can appeal decisions is reduced not enhanced. These are big questions still to be resolved.
Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation)
http://www.irelandip.com/articles/privacy-1/
- The one-stop-shop mechanism
http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-6833-2015-INIT/en/pdf
Facebook can delete certain posts but I have some of my early ones still…
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/08/13/depleted-uranium-induced-radioactivity/
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/stealing-a-nation/
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