The Court of EU invalidated the decision of the European Commission (EC), which considered that the US guarantee an adequate level of protection of personal data and allow the transfer of data of European citizens.
The decision came after legal battle an Austrian law student with Facebook and could end the agreement that facilitates the transfer of private data from the European Union to companies or institutions in the US.
The decision of the Court of Justice of the EU can impact the performance of US technology firms with presence in Europe, such as Facebook, Apple, Google and Microsoft .
Max Schrems , a college of 27 years from 2011 claims that Facebook violates EU data protection rules, says he favors the exchange of data between countries, but with guarantees.
Schrems raised the case in Ireland, where Facebook operates, for tax reasons, from its European activities and transferred to the US where data of all users in the EU.
In its complaint, Schrems asked the Irish authorities suspend the transfer of personal data outside the EU .
The Austrian, present during the reading of the judgment, it estimated that known cases of espionage in 2013 evidenced that the US did not protect your data .
The data transfer between the EU and the US is governed by the agreement sealed in 2000 between Brussels and Washington known as Safe Harbour (Puerto insurance). This agreement lists a series of principles that regard the US as a “safe country” and adhering companies like Facebook, Google or Apple.
This allows those companies, in the spirit of this European legislation, develop their activities in the EU in compliance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the block, which protects the right to privacy.
But European court ruled this agreement as invalid .
In particular, the court notes that the accordance reaches only to companies and not to the US intelligence agencies , which “are not subject to that regime “.
Specifies that US companies also are subject, for reasons of national security in the US, to allow their access to the data of its users,” so that the institutions are required to derogate, without limitation, protection rules “prescribed in the agreement.
The decision” is a milestone in regard to online privacy, “estimated Schrems in a statement.
“It’s a 100% victory for Schrems, it is unusual, but it happens,” said a European expert. “The Commission can no longer say anything,” he said, estimating that “Facebook users must await the decision of the authority Irish control”.
In its ruling, the court found that no European legislation prevents national authorities to monitor “the transfer of personal data to third countries.”
It considered therefore that the Irish supervisory authority “must examine the complaint of Schrems with all the diligence required “and must decide if” the transfer of data from European Facebook users in the United States should be stopped “.
In a reaction to the ruling, Facebook asked Brussels and Washington to provide a framework legal insurance.
“Facebook, as thousands of European companies depends on a number of methods covered by EU legislation to legally transfer information to the United States from Europe,” the company said in a statement.
AFP – EFE
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