A 15-year-old agreement that allows US tech firms such as Facebook to send personal data to the US could be invalid, according to a top lawyer.
The European Court of Justice's Advocate-General, Yves Bot, said nations should be able to suspend the transfer of data if it is being used in a way that violates European rights.
The opinion is only a recommendation to the court, however this is rarely overruled.
A data sharing agreement known as "Safe Harbour" has existed since 2000 between the European Commission, the US and Switzerland.
Wednesday's development has far-reaching consequences for that agreement - and it could ultimately be void.
The case was brought by activist Max Schrems, who has repeatedly challenged Facebook's data collection practices in Europe.
He has argued that due to the Edward Snowden allegations over widespread surveillance of data in US-based servers held by companies like Facebook and Google, EU citizens' data is at risk.
He said afterwards: "Companies that participate in US mass surveillance and provide, for example, cloud services within the EU rely on data centres in the US may now have to invest in secure data centres within the European Union.
"This could be a major issue for Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft or Yahoo.
"All of them operate data centres in Europe, but may need to fundamentally restructure their data storage architecture and maybe even their corporate structure."
A full ruling will be made at a later date.
(Sky News)
No comments:
Post a Comment