A pact that helped the tech giants and others send personal data from the EU to the US has been ruled invalid.
The European Court of Justice said that the Safe Harbour agreement did not eliminate the need for local privacy watchdogs to check US firms were taking adequate data protection measures.
It added that the ruling meant Ireland’s regulator now needed to decide whether Facebook’s EU-to-US transfers should be suspended.
The pact has existed for 15 years.
Facebook has yet to comment.
The ruling was the result of a legal challenge by an Austrian privacy campaigner concerned that the social network might be sharing European’s personal data with US cyberspies.
But it could have far-reaching consequences affecting many other companies.
“Thousands of US businesses rely on the Safe Harbour as a means of moving information to the US from Europe,” said Richard Cumbley from the law firm Linklaters.
“Without Safe Harbour, they will be scrambling to put replacement measures in place.”
The European Commission is expected to give a press conference later in the day to explain how it plans to react to the ruling.(Leo Kelion)
Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34442618
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